By Emmanuel D. Taghoy
IPIL, Zamboanga Sibugay – A Text2Teach Training and Orientation was conducted to elementary school teachers from 14 public schools in Zamboanga Sibugay province on Feb. 27-March 1 at Roderic’s Hotel and Resort in this municipality.
The training and orientation, which is part of the package of the Text2Teach Project, aimed to train teachers on the use of Nokia Education Delivery (NED) data gathering; assess teachers’ knowledge on its use through simulation, hands-on exercises and demonstration teaching; provide a forum for the participating schools to make action plans for effective management of Text2Teach; and to provide a forum for the community leaders to participate in sustaining Text2Teach in their area through the creation of a sustainability plan.
Some 70 elementary school teachers from the 14 selected schools around the province participated in the event.
These schools are recipient of the Text2Teach project of the Text2Teach Alliance composed of the Ayala Foundation Inc. (AFI), Department of Education (DepEd), Nokia Corporation, Globe Telecom and Pearson Foundation, with a counterpart funding from the local government unit of Ipil in the amount of P660,385.
The AFI, as the project manager on behalf of the Text2Teach consortium, has allocated a counterpart in the amount of P1,036,000 for project management and implementation, community launch, administrative costs, hardware and equipment.
Hardware and equipment include Mobile phone (Nokia 701 8GB), RCA Cable, Pre-paid load (P 150 per month for one year), downloading load for one year, Nokia Education Delivery (NED) software, Educational videos (Math, Science, English and Values, a 32-inch LED TV, RCA Cable, Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR), speakers and TV rack which will be provided to the 14 public school recipients.
Mr. Archimedes G. Velasco, area operations manager of AFI’s Mindanao Programs said in an interview that AFI, as the local project leader for the Text2Teach project, together with its partners implements Text2Teach to provide the necessary infrastructure that will provide elementary school pupils and teachers in the public educational system access to interactive, easy-to-use multimedia packages designed to make learning more meaningful, exciting and effective among young learners.