Program supporting brgys, parents for children’s early grade learning launched in Roxas City

ROXAS City – “We can’t let COVID-19 win over our children’s education.”

This was the remark of Dr. Thomas LeBlanc, Director, Office of Education, USAID Philippines as USAID’s ABC+: Advancing Basic Education in the Philippines Project launched the Parent and Community Engagement Project in Roxas City on Thursday, June 17, 2021, to help parents and communities in their involvement in children’s early grade learning, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“We will bolster the skills of parents to facilitate learning, as well as build the capacity of communities to support parents and the Department of Education (DepEd) to make sure that kids learn,” said LeBlanc during the online launch attended by Roxas City Mayor Ronnie Dadivas, the DepEd, local partners, parents’ organizations, and community leaders.

“Due to COVID, distance learning is the only mode of learning available for children. This brings new challenges to parents who are now required to be more involved in the education of their children, especially in the early grades,” he added.

Early grade learning is from Kinder to Grade 3 with emphasis on reading and math. Distance learning has been a challenge for parents since the community quarantines and DepEd suspended face-to-face classes. Roxas City was placed on modified enhanced community quarantine recently to address the increasing number of COVID-19 cases.

“Through this project, we will provide support and capacitate parents in facilitating their children’s learning. We will also establish a system within the community to support parents, especially those who have not finished their education in performing their role as learning facilitators,” explained Mr. John Patrick Sedantes of the Community’s Hope and Initiative for Lasting Development, Incorporated or CHILDInitiative, the project partner in Region VI.

Sedantes said that parent and community session guides will be implemented in six communities or barangays in Western Visayas: two (2) in Roxas city, two (2) in Bacolod City and two (2) geographically-isolated and disadvantaged areas or GIDA in Antique. The session includes regular training for parents, promotion of collaboration among teachers, barangay leaders and other stakeholders, and provision of mother tongue language learning materials, among others.

“We are aiming to have a community working together to support the learning of children in the early years. We want to see that everyone is helping for the education of their children to learn especially in this time of pandemic,” Sedantes remarked.

Mayor Dadivas lauded the initiative and expressed his commitment to early grade learning. “The city also allocated part of its budget for children to continue learning, specifically for different training activities to improve early grade education,” the mayor said.

“I am confident that we can sustain an environment and a system that will capacitate the communities and parents to be more effective home learning facilitators, particularly for early grade learners,” he concluded. #