Crisis-resilient education strategy enables donation of portable classrooms

To complement Smart Communications Inc.’s donation of portable digital classrooms to learning communities, the PLDT wireless unit trained School-in-a-Bag beneficiaries on the Central Visayan Institute Foundation - Dynamic Learning Program education strategy.

Supported by Smart and PLDT-Smart Foundation (PSF), CVIF-DLP has been proven to improve the academic performance of students, especially in Science, Innovative Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. It was first established in 2002 at the CVIF in Jagna, Bohol by world-renowned Theoretical Physicists and Ramon Magsaysay awardees for education, Dr. Christopher Bernido, and Dr. Ma. Victoria Carpio-Bernido. 

Smart’s education initiatives are among the key pillars of the company’s campaign to #LiveSmarter for a #BetterWorld. Under the movement, Smart aims to inspire people to commit to sustainable actions with lasting, positive impact to society. 

Beneficiaries of Smart’s CVIF-DLP training included teachers from Halang Elementary School in the east portion of Calamba, Laguna; Camflora Elementary School in the 4th class municipality of San Andres, Quezon Province; and Panglima Sugala Sailing School in the southernmost island province of Tawi-Tawi.

"As a teacher facing this pandemic without face-to-face interaction with students, the CVIF-DLP strategy of copying notes, while still being guided with necessary details of each topic, helps pupils retain lessons," Teacher Johrainne of Halang Elementary School says. 

The elementary instructor also believes that the devices contained in the donated School-in-a-Bag packages can further complement CVIF-DLP. "The pre-loaded online learning resources can supplement DepEd's learning modules, and there are many extra virtual activities that can greatly develop learners' understanding of their lessons," Teacher Johrainne explains.

The School-in-a-Bag packages granted to these schools were donated by Huawei Technologies Phils., Inc. through PSF. Each package includes a water-resistant backpack that contains a laptop for the teacher, 20 tablets to let students access interactive applications even while offline, and a Smart LTE pocket WiFi kit which teachers can use to connect to the internet and download additional content. 

Aside from these School-in-a-Bag beneficiaries, educators from the Department of Education (DepEd) Division of Elementary and Secondary Schools in Laguna also tuned in to the CVIF-DLP workshop. The online training featured success stories and best practices of CVIF-DLP implementers from University of the East —Manila and the Schools Division of Basilan, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

With over 479 virtual attendees, the said CVIF-DLP training is among the many workshops that Smart has rolled out since 2010 to promote the innovative education technique. “We’ve supported the CVIF-Dynamic Learning Program for over 10 years now because it provides concrete, tried-and-tested solutions to the problems faced by the education sector, to help attain our LearnSmart goal that no learner will get left behind,” says Stephanie Orlino, AVP for Community Partnerships at Smart. 

In 2020, Smart also announced the availability of ready-to-use, free-to-download CVIF-DLP Learning Activity Sheets at www.commons.deped.gov.ph. This DepEd portal can be accessed by Smart and TNT subscribers even without data load.  These Junior and Senior High School resources developed by CVIF is one of only three supplemental learning materials being endorsed by DepEd for SY 2020-2021.

To date, more than 779 formal and non-formal schools nationwide have implemented CVIF-DLP. “It has been proven to work in all primary and secondary academic levels, as well as in the Alternative Learning System (ALS), and targets the entire spectrum of learners, including Special Education students,” Orlino explains.

For more information on CVIF-DLP, School-in-a-Bag, and other education initiatives of Smart, follow Dynamic Learning Program and Smart Communities on Facebook, or send an email to [email protected]