Edcom: ‘Learning Camp’ failed since it’s voluntary

The Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) on Friday proposed making the National Learning Camp (NLC) program in public schools mandatory, finding its recent three-week implementation ineffective in improving the skills of its target students.

Based on its assessment of the second NLC implementation, which ran from July 1 to July 19, Edcom said the program “failed to achieve its intended outcomes.”

No evidence of recovery

It noted that the very students who needed to improve their competencies were the ones who skipped the three-week sessions held during the school break.

READ: DepEd unveils National Learning Camp for interactive education

“Despite the claim of addressing learning-loss recovery, there has been no clear evidence of improvement of education targets,” said the commission, whose members visited some schools that held NLC sessions.

Edcom is an advisory body tasked to review the country’s education policies following the dismal test results of Filipino students that have consistently placed them at the bottom rung of international rankings in English, math and science proficiency.

Teachers agree

“Our previous consultations … show that because participation is voluntary, some learners who were supposed to be in intervention camps do not participate,” Edcom 2 Executive Director Karol Yee said in a statement issued by the commission. “This is just among the other factors why learning camps are not as effective,” Yee added.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, the Edcom 2 chair, agreed that attendance in the learning camps must be made compulsory for students who need to catch up.

Teachers at Tinajeros National High School in Malabon City, which conducted NLC sessions, echoed the Edcom proposal, saying many students allowed to advance to the next grade level were actually still behind in learning competencies.

“One major solution we are seeing is to make the learning camp mandatory so that the skills of [students] that were not developed in the previous grade level will be sharpened,” the Edcom statement quoted one of the teachers as saying.

Rep. Francisco Benitez, one of the commissioners, said the NLC “cannot be the only way. Because two weeks do not solve the (learning) loss. The interventions need to be done every day during the school year.”