by Mai Gevera

Manila (22 July) -- As promised in last year's State of the Nation Address, Mindanao received much of education benefits. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was on track of her targets especially on education.

The Australian-funded Basic Education Access for Mindanao (BEAM) has helped the administration in providing education services especially directed to Mindanao.

The project was able to educate 10,841 individuals including pre-school, out-of-school youths, adults and parents who gained new learnings from the Early Childhood Education (ECE), Functional Literacy (FL), Alternative Learning System-Accreditation and Equivalency and Distance Learning Program.

Almost 2,000 out-of-school youths through the Alternative Learning System were able to study and prepare for the Accreditation and Equivalency National Test which enables the takers to proceed to the next level of education if they pass the test.

Parents and out-of-school youths had also updated their life skills as the project gave them a Mobile Learning Program. The program advocated education through its four-wheel vehicle equipped with an audio-visual system. It traveled to the various barangays, thus, making learning accessible and possible for all learners.

Best of all, the BEAM project built 119 community or tribal learning centers through a "bayanihan" system. In far-flung areas, these learning centers served as classrooms for the learners and a multi-purpose hall for community activities.

Teachers were also benefited through the materials development component that established the Learning-Guides System, an internet-based software tool that DepEd teachers can use. It contains students activities applying the strategies like Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS).

School administrators and teachers were also given series of trainings and workshops that taught them to apply HOTS in the teaching and learning process in their respective schools. Some 23 school heads were trained in Australia to absorb and learn from the advanced teaching techniques in the said country to be applied in the Philippines set-up.