In the photo: (L-R) Ayala Foundation Inc. President Maria Lourdes “Luli” Heras-De Leon, Globe Telecom Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications Yoly C. Crisanto, Dalma Indanan, Principal of Kaunayan Elementary School and representative of the Department of Education – ARMM, and Mercia Salarda Alli of Matawkasi, a community-based organization in Sulu.
Globe Telecom-powered mobile learning program, Text2Teach, found its way to the far-flung province of Sulu.
The program extension is an effort to improve the learning of students in the aforementioned Mindanao province. Text2Teach will initially cover 10 of 23 public elementary schools in Patikul, Sulu that have a total student and teacher population of 9,914 and 219, respectively.
Initiated in the Philippines in 2003, Text2Teach is a joint project of Nokia, Globe Telecom, Ayala Foundation, Inc., Pearson Foundation, Toshiba, and the Department of Education. They selected Patikul as a response to the lack of core teaching resources such as textbooks and regular teaching training in the local schools.
“We want to address the lack of appeal of education in the community by providing an abundant supply of teaching resources through the Text2Teach videos. We also believe that the Text2Teach training program can boost teacher morale and enhance the learning environment in the classroom as teachers will be equipped with new ways of maximizing classroom engagements. In the end, the success of the project should be reflected in a significant decrease in drop-outs,” said Maria Lourdes “Luli” Heras-De Leon, President of Ayala Foundation, Inc.
“Text2Teach shows how mobile technology can be used in various ways, not only to call, text, and browse the Internet but also to enhance the educational experiences of the students. Through the Text2Teach alliance, we at the private sector together with our public sector counterpart, are able to work hand-in-hand in harnessing this technology to give our underprivileged students a chance to gain access to the kind of education that other children around the world are enjoying,” said Yoly C. Crisanto, Globe Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications.
The program provides teachers with a highly effective visual aid such as videos on Math, Science, English, and Values Education. These can be downloaded from a smartphone using Globe Telecom’s network and can be watched using 29-inch television sets provided by the project.
Currently, Text2Teach has been deployed to 816 Philippine public elementary schools, and has served 309,672 students and trained 2,617 teachers across 14 provinces, 15 cities, and 26 municipalities.