Andam Eskwela: Addressing the Needs of the Education Sector during Pandemic
Andam Eskwela: Addressing the Needs of the Education Sector during Pandemic
By: Herna Francis Mae B. Tano
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I had a personal conversation with one of leaders in Ayala Young Leaders Alumni in Region X who happened to be working at Department of Education, El Salvador City—Mr. Ron Mugot. The conversation started when he commended our team about our COVID-19 response, I even shared to him that what we did was not expected. The overwhelming support of the people have been our strength that serve us the foundation of our 3-month implementation of the drive.
I asked him this question “As a youth, what do you think amo ma tabang namo to help address the challenges in education kuya ?” he replied, “Today's challenge is the mass reproduction of resource materials. As estimated by the DepEd, 20-30 billion are needed for the production pa lang. So as a youth, we can actually contribute through supplies support (adopt a school)”. After hearing his suggestion, we did some research and found out that DepEd is really experiencing a need for fund because of the transition that had happened in our society.
His reply paved way for our driving force to create a project that could really help the education sector. We named it Andam Eskwela. Andam Eskwela aims to support the need of reproduction materials such as bondpapers and inks to elementary public school in far flung areas of Cagayan de Oro. The said drive sparked interest to many of the local youth and in any places around the country whose primary concern is to address the need of reproduction materials for the self-learning modules of the pupils.
We piloted this project to Himaya Elementary school, a far-flung area in El Salvador City as per advised by Sir Ron. This school-community is truly in need of help and support most especially that the area where it is at has no signal or can’t be accessed by GPS. Therefore, most of the help can’t easily reach the community not unless there are tour guides who can help you navigate the area.
The next beneficiary was Bayabas Elementary School which is just located near the city proper, but we found out at that time their need of bondpapers and inks; followed by a hinterland community at Indahag Elementary School. At this wave of donation, we partnered with two companies – Kirahon Solar Energy and Nature’s Spring, and one active youth organization—Youth Advocates of the Philippines, who helped us made this drive possible.
After Indahag Elementary School, we also gave attention to its nearby school community—Kamakawan Elementary School and Taguanao Elementary School who are both hinterland school-communities. The identified schools have experienced the crisis of bondpapers and inks. We were supported by another partner— Parasat Group of Companies that provided the bondpapers for this donation drive.
Andam Eskwela believe that the children deserve a convenient experience of learning most specially when their childhood is stained by the dark impacts of the pandemic. As they say, the next generation will judge us on how the children have lived in our time. From giving attention to the need of self-learning modules, to crowdsourcing and to distribution, our little response created a meaning experience for us in our simple ways. Like many other initiatives, we know that no act of helping is small or big, for the fact that DepEd needed 20-30 billion additional budget. Andam Eskwela may not have created a difference in the society but atleast it made a difference in the lives of each children who will benefit from the bayanihan of people who care for them.
Keywords: Children, Education, Donation Drive, Public School in Cagayan de Oro, DepEd
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