As government introduces e-learning this school year
TACLOBAN CITY- A youth council in Lavezares town, Northern Samar has come up with a program providing free use of computers in time for this school year’s electronic and blended learning.
Proculo Adriatico, Jr., the chairman of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) of Barangay Libas, said that they have come up with this program considering that many of the students in their village cannot afford to buy gadgets like mobile phones which they can use for their studies under the new set up.
“Many of our students does not have gadgets of their own which they can use for this school year so we have decided to come up with this program as our way of helping them,” the 22-year old SK leader said in a phone interview.
The village is the biggest among Lavezares’ 26 barangays with more than 3,000 population whose people depend on fishing and farming as their source of incomes.
Adriatico said that the program could potentially benefit around 700 young students of the village.
The government will be introducing e-learning or modular learning to help ensure that students will be spared from getting infection of the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19).
Adriatico said that they bought two computer sets and a printer for this program using their SK funds amounting close toP40,000.
The computer sets and the printer were installed at their barangay hall.
And as part of health protocols being enforced during this time of calamity brought by COVID-19, those who will enter their e-library must wear face mask and observe social distancing.
Adriatico, who will be on his last year in college taking education at Northern Samar College at the provincial capital of Catarman, said that the use of computers will be ‘strictly for educational purposes’ only.
And to ensure that they can sustain this program and not depend solely on their limited funds, they have also come up with an idea for students to bring used bottles every time they want to print their assignments.
“In return, we sold these used bottles which we use to buy bond papers needed for the printing,” Adriatico said.
For Rose Ann Morado,19, she is happy that their SK leaders under Adriatico has come up with this program for them students.
“This is really a big help for us especially during this time of pandemic. Before we have to go to an internet shop to do our assignments. Now we can do our school works at our e-library free of charge,” the second year education student, said.
Morado said that she and her three siblings will avail this program as their way of helping their family save. Their father, Alvino,44, works as a farmer while their mother, Rosa,43, sells vegetables.
The village has one internet shop which charges P15 per hour of use.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
