COTABATO CITY -- Like their forebears, Muslim and Christian children in Mindanao are now learning English grammar direct from the Americans, who introduced the language in the land more than a century ago.
Members of the United States Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) are mentoring English teachers in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and in Central Mindanao. The PCV group is part of the visiting forces in the Joint Philippine-US Military Exercises.
ARMM Education Secretary Udtog Kawit said the mentoring project of a US-funded education program has been triggered by reports of low-proficiency in English among ARMM teachers and questions about the quality of the lesson packages being used by teachers.
The "failure" in some learning packages, Kawit said, included the printing of learning materials with ungrammatical sentences and with terms deemed unfit for children by some critics. Some of the learning materials were funded by foreign loans for book programs.
On February 14, officials of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) revisited pilot areas in Flauta Elementary School; Bagumba ES; Malamonte ES; Central Bulanan ES, and Sambulawan ES, all in Midsayap, North Cotabato.
Under an education-based program funded by USAID, EQuALLS (Education Quality Access to Learning and Livelihood Skills), the PCV group conducted two training sessions for some 500 teachers from ARMM, Central Mindanao and Western Mindanao in Cebu City.
The mentoring activities called English Language Camps (ELC) were reminiscent of the arrival of the Thomasites, hundreds of American teachers, in the early 20th century in the Philippines, when American education was introduced in local public schools for Filipinos who learned the English language in more practical ways, said Kawit. (The Thomasites were then called as such because they arrived in the country aboard a ship called Thomas).
For instance, Abigail Swofford, a PCV member, taught elementary school teachers from Mindanao the English language through comic strip writing, so that beneficiaries "discover a new way of learning a new language."
Other mentoring methods used are oral reading; writing and development, and library development.
Elzadia Washington, deputy mission director of USAID Philippines, said she was delighted to see schoolchildren able to read in English in a reading camp session with their parents at the Flauta Elementary School.
Washington's group that included Lisa Chiles, deputy assistant administrator for the USAID Asia and the Near East Bureau, and a representative of USAID Education chief Tom Crehan, also distributed books consisting of 300 titles to local school and village government officials.
Janice Sevilla, an officer of EQuALLS, said a technology learning program would also benefit out-of-school youths, under the Skills Training and Industry Immersion (STII).
Sevilla said STII "is part of the Alternative Learning System (ALS) program of EQuALLS' (second phase) which provides basic education, life skills, and livelihood training."
Midsayap Mayor Manuel Rabara said Muslim and Christians have been "engaged in a dynamic exchange with each other through 'easy-to-learn-easy-earn' livelihood skills development," as reported in EQuALLS' project monitoring.
For instance, says an EQuALLS report: "Christian learners who have learned the technology of growing mushrooms are currently teaching their Muslim counterparts, while others have ventured into making native delicacies and cooking food for sale."
The Peace Camps project, implemented for EQuALLS by the Save the Children Foundation, was conducted for 750 out-of-school youths and children to enhance their livelihood skills and foster relationship among Muslim and Christian youths.
Myn Garcia, a Filipina-Canadian communication specialist, described the Peace Camp as an "excellent activity."
Garcia is reviewing current and recent advocacy and communication initiatives and activities on peace education and peace-building in ARMM.
