Getting Education Back on Track

The Philippines’ Learning Continuity Plan (LCP) is a set of education interventions that address the challenges brought by COVID-19 to basic education in the country. It prioritizes the health, safety, and well-being of all students, teachers, and personnel of the Department of Education (DepEd).

Like in other countries, the enrollment rates in the Philippines decreased during the pandemic. About 25 million students from kindergarten to senior high school enrolled in October 2020, only 90% of the total in the past school year. Gross enrollment for high school decreased from 94% in the school year 2019–2020 to 86% for 2020–2021. Those in poorer regions experienced even lower enrollment rates. For example, in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, enrollment dropped by 41%.

Students and schools, especially in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, do not have the tools necessary for distance or blended learning. As a result, more students face the risk of dropping out and finding it harder to come back, especially with the requirements of the new normal.

Whether traditional face-to-face, online, or a hybrid of both, education has become out of reach as more families are pushed into poverty. The disruption to the students’ education has become longer than anticipated. For some, it may have been permanent.

EdTech Solutions

ADB and the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific (formerly Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, JPFR) are helping the Philippine government ensure that all students have equal access to quality education during the pandemic and beyond. Together with the Philippines’ DepEd, they are piloting low-cost EdTech solutions for last-mile schools in the country, focusing on junior and senior high school students (grades 7–12). As defined by the DepEd, last-mile schools are those with less than four classrooms, usually makeshift and nonstandard ones; without electricity nor funds for repairs or new construction projects; and are usually at a distance of more than an hour away from the center, accessible only through difficult terrain. They could also be schools with multi-grade classes, with less than five teachers, and a population of fewer than 100 learners, more than 75% of whom could be indigenous peoples.

This project is enabling secondary students in selected schools in the country to access quality education through quality content and tools as well as enhanced teacher capacity. This pilot can be replicated in other hard-to-reach areas in the country.

“The fallout from COVID-19 extends beyond health and, in the Philippines, straight into the classroom. Many children and young adults are not getting the education they deserve. By harnessing technology with effective learning content and targeting disadvantaged students in remote schools, this innovative pilot project will provide great insights into how to deliver effective teaching and learning beyond COVID-19,” said Yumiko Yamakawa, senior education specialist, ADB.

By harnessing technology with effective learning content and targeting disadvantaged students in remote schools, this innovative pilot project will provide great insights into how to deliver effective teaching and learning beyond COVID-19.

– Yumiko Yamakawa, ADB senior education specialist

Suitable content

This project is helping the country develop digital content for secondary education based on DepEd’s predefined most essential learning competencies (MELC). These digitized learning materials will cover at least 50% of the MELCs, which are difficult for junior and senior high school students to learn: Math, Science, and English subjects. The project will also ensure that all these materials will be interactive plus gender- and indigenous people–responsive. These materials will also incorporate gaming features to make them more interesting to students and facilitate their learning.

Distance education

In consultation with DepEd, the project selected 21 last-mile schools in hard-to-reach communities in three regions to pilot technology-based distance education using low-cost tablets and local area network (LAN) connections powered by solar energy. The project will provide 3,500 tablets to secondary education students and 21 LAN sets to schools to help students continue learning amid the pandemic. Participating schools and their teachers and administrators will be supported by capacitating DepEd’s information technology (IT) officers to install and maintain the networks.

Teacher training

The project will support the training of both teachers and administrators in using technology to ensure seamless learning. This training package includes assistance in content development, individualized learning, student learning assessment, and transition to classroom sessions. Knowledge products—such as digital training tools for educators, parents/guardians, and students; guides and social marketing tools to support distance education; and lessons from the project—will also be developed.

Results So Far

The project, which began in February 2021, is well under way and has already achieved several milestones. This project will help the Philippines provide access to quality education to distant and geographically disadvantaged schools in the school year 2021–2022 and beyond.

Twenty-one last-mile schools and beneficiary students and teachers to be supported by the project have already been selected. These schools are found in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas and badly need safe, secure, and consistent access to technology to continue the students’ learning. The project is procuring network equipment to provide to the schools. The tablets the students would use for their online classes were delivered to the selected schools in January 2022.

Digitized learning materials for three subjects are currently being developed in phases.

Initial training among IT officers, school administrators, and teachers was conducted to prepare them for distance education and for handling the equipment and the digitized learning materials. Administrators were trained to support teachers in planning and implementing online classes, while teachers were oriented on facilitating student learning using digital materials connected to a LAN.

It may be small in scope for now, but this project brings hope to many schools and students in the Philippines’ last-mile schools. It demonstrates how the government can provide access to quality education for many students. Finally, it shows how archipelagic and emerging countries like the Philippines can address the digital divide that deprives their children of a way out of poverty.