Multigrade Schools Receive School-in-a-Bag to Help Improve Teaching and Learning in Samar and Northern Samar
SEAMEO INNOTECH along with the Philippine Department of Education (DepEd) and UNICEF, in partnership with Smart Communications, turned over ICT-enabled learning resources to 50 multigrade schools in the Divisions of Samar and Northern Samar on 25 May 2019 at the Summit Hotel in Tacloban City. The provision of School-in-a-Bag (SIAB) packages is part of the project, “Strengthening Delivery of Multigrade Program in Region 8” (SDMG-R8) under the tripartite cooperation agreement among DepEd, UNICEF, and SEAMEO INNOTECH.
Since 2017, the Center has been working closely with DepEd and UNICEF in providing technical support through a research study and development of a multigrade monitoring and evaluation system and building the capacities of multigrade implementers to improve access to quality learning for disadvantaged children in remote school-communities in the country. The SDMG R8 project, which started in May 2018, focuses on building the capacity of multigrade program implementers in Region 8, where many multigrade schools are present.
Through a series of consultative workshops with multigrade implementers from the Schools Divisions of Samar and Northern Samar, teachers, school heads, and supervisors identified the need for up-to-date, contextualized, and interactive learning resources to support multigrade instruction and thereby improve student learning. Each School-in-a-Bag contains one backpack, one projector, one teacher laptop, one teacher tablet, five student tablets, one DVD player, one USB memory drive, one pocket Wi-Fi with starter load, as well as mother tongue-based literacy apps – Kaaram (Waray) and Katao (Inabaknon) – and other mobile learning resources that will make learning more interesting and easy for both multigrade learners and teachers.
With the tripartite agreement among DepEd, UNICEF, and INNOTECH in effect until 2022, the institutions continue to work together in improving access to quality and inclusive education, making sure that no learner will be left behind.
