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Vivian Panes is an elementary teacher from the barrio. Like other teachers, she rides a motorbike to the school located in the outskirts of Midsayap, North Cotabato. But unlike other women in the area, she chooses to drive her own motorbike.
Her daring and dexterity in taking control of the bike and maneuvering the challenging dirt road that leads to the NES Elementary School make it no surprise that she has also taken well to using the computer, still a novelty in her school. And she clearly sees the advantages of both machines.
“With my bike, I can be very mobile and can reach the school anytime I want. With the aid of a computer, I can do some of my teaching responsibilities in a breeze,” explains Panes.
Panes attributes her computer skills to her innate interest in technology and her desire to do things swiftly but effectively. She also gives credit to her school administrator for sending her to an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) training conducted in the town center.
Panes is among the 102 elementary school teachers from Midsayap whom Microsoft Philippines and the U.S. Agency for International Development, under its Education Quality and Access for Learning and Livelihood Skills (EQuALLS2) project, trained on basic computer literacy to strengthen the teachers’ classroom instruction and management skills. Implemented in support of the ICT for Education thrust of the Philippine Department of Education but focusing on conflict-affected areas in Mindanao, the training has enabled the teachers to use the computer to prepare lesson plans, develop instructional materials, calculate grades, and locate reference materials.
“I learned valuable skills and techniques on how to maximize the use of computers, which made my life as a teacher a lot easier,” says Panes. “The capabilities of the computer seem boundless,” she exclaims.
Panes shares this amazement with Ester Maturan, Grade 3 teacher from Midsayap Pilot Central Elementary School, also a participant in the EQuALLS2-Microsoft ICT training last April.
Maturan, who barely knew how to maneuver the mouse prior to her ICT training, now uses the computer to produce visual aids and several other teaching materials like “Word of the Day” flash cards and stories that she reads with her students.
“With the help of my computer, I encoded some children’s stories in MS Word and reproduced them so that my students can read along with me,” she says.
Unlike Panes who used her own money to buy a computer, Maturan utilizes the computers that USAID’s EQuALLS2 project provided to the trained teachers through its ICT Hubs initiative. The project turned over 32 computers and peripherals to four public elementary school districts in Midsayap. The ICT hubs are maintained and supported by the respective DepED district offices and the local government unit. Midsayap was the first of 10 municipalities in Mindanao to receive computers for teachers and administrators.
USAID’s EQuALLS2 Project has already distributed 80 computers and peripherals to four municipalities in Mindanao and will distribute an additional 150 computers to six more municipalities therein.
Part of the ICT initiative is the Mentorship Program, in which teachers who underwent training from USAID’s EQuALLS2 Project and Microsoft will provide tutorials to fellow teachers at the hub.
Quarterly support meetings for participating teachers are now being facilitated to provide a venue for ongoing sharing, planning, and continuing evaluation of the ICT initiative.
“When my co-teachers saw my computer-generated class records and colorful visual aids, they all asked me to teach them how to do those things,” narrates Panes, while adding that she is currently mentoring Anna Virginia Gonzales, a Grade 5 teacher, also from NES Elementary School.
“Since (Gonzalez) is a science teacher, she greatly benefits from the reference materials from Encarta, and uses them intensively,” she says.
Marycel Cruz, a teacher from the same school who also took the EQuALLS2-Microsoft ICT training, assists Panes in her mentorship with Gonzales.
“It is both exciting and fulfilling to see a co-teacher becoming adept at the computer programs we learned during the training,” says Cruz.
“Computers are just like motorbikes; the more you get to ride them, the easier the driving becomes. And of course, like any ride, the more, the merrier,” says Panes.
USAID’s EQuALLS2 Project aims to improve education in Mindanao by increasing learning opportunities for children and youth through cultivation of community support for education, strengthening of teaching capacity in English, science, and math at the elementary level, and extension of alternative learning and earning opportunities to out-of-school children and youth. The project is being implemented in partnership with the national DepED and with DepED in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
