Leyte teachers overcome adversity, troubleshoot problems in education

TACLOBAN CITY — After two years of virtual and mobile graduation, completers and graduates were finally able to climb up the stage for their face-to-face graduation ceremonies.

But behind those proud smiles and cheers are untold stories of sacrifices and hard work of teachers who struggled to impart quality education to their students amid the perennial problem of lack of classrooms and educational materials and the continuous threat of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mauro Lagarto Jr., head teacher of Talisay Elementary School in Talisay, an interior village in Mayorga, Leyte, shared that they encountered a high rate of learners who cannot read or found modular distance learning difficult.

In order to address the concern, Arlene de Paz, their district supervisor, conducted numeracy and literacy test to come up with an intervention plan.

With the approval of the local interagency task force for Covid-19, the district implemented a limited face-to-face tutorial among non-numerates and non-readers.

Lagarto said among 140 students, they only have five non-numerates and five non-readers left from Grades 3 to Grade 6.

He also conducted a series of assessment tests for incoming Grade 1 pupils and yielded a positive result after the intervention.

Meanwhile, the school head appealed for more classrooms since some of them have been conducting classes in temporary learning sites or makeshift classrooms.

They have been waiting for replacement school buildings since their school was razed by a fire in 2019.

With Vice President Sara Duterte's appointment as Secretary of Education, Lagarto expressed optimism that they will be provided with at least four more classrooms that will accommodate incoming students.

In Ormocay Elementary School, also in Mayorga, Joel Silvio, the school head, disclosed that unlike Talisay Elementary School, which has the highest Covid-19 vaccination rate in the district, only about 20 to 30 percent among 179 learners are vaccinated.

"Sadly, some parents living in far-flung areas have a different mentality in terms of vaccinating their children. However, we do not cease to encourage them to have their children vaccinated," he said.

He added that they also struggled with high non-numeracy and non-literacy rates.

It was found out that during their quarterly numeracy test, 9.73 percent of the 103 learners from Grades 3 to 6 were struggling in basic arithmetic. "It is alarming because the Grade 3 level is the transition from mother tongue to the English language," he said.

As a scholar of the Leadership Academy at Leyte Division, he initiated Learn to Count through Interactive Discussion or Project LID, where they conducted limited face-toface discussions in a hub.

Although they were not able to meet 100 percent numeracy rate, he shared that they were able to develop the learners' competency from non-numerates to moderates.

He appealed to the national government to strengthen their support for schools in terms of K-to-12 learning materials.

"It has been years since the K-to-12 program has been implemented but not all learning materials are complete even the teacher's guide," he said.

To provide quality education for learners, he hopes that they would be provided with sufficient learning materials for the teachers to focus more on enhancing their skills and come up with better interventions for the learners.