Stakeholders to help schools develop child’s potential

PRIVATE stakeholders are helping roll out an innovative teaching method that would help Filipino students become globally competitive.

As part of the rollout for the next school year, Smart Communications Inc. and PLDT-Smart Foundation will be holding simultaneous half-day orientation seminars from Oct. 22 to 25 in various schools in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

The orientation seminar would encourage participants to adapt the Dynamic Learning Program (DLP), which was first implemented at the Central Visayan Institute Foundation (CVIF) in Jagna, Bohol by doctors Christopher Bernido and his wife Ma. Victoria to develop the potential of the children.

This will be followed by one-day writeshops early next year, as well as simultaneous three-day Learning Physics as One Nation (LPON) seminars in April.

Being staunch advocates for education, Smart and PSF have committed to help the Bernido couple, 2010 Ramon Magsaysay awardees and theoretical physicists, spread the good news about the DLP.

“Smart thinks the CVIF-DLP would be beneficial to public schools,” said Stephanie Orlino, Smart Public Affairs manager.

“We are disseminating the DLP because we believe in the program that is aligned with our corporate social responsibility initiatives. We have committed to help the Bernidos expand its implementation nationwide,” Orlino said.

“The PLDT Group is proud to be part of this initiative. This is the kind of investment that would give good returns,” said Esther Santos, PSF president.

“We’ve been thinking how to help a child reach his full potential. For our country to be productive in the 21st century, we must have an army of engineers and scientists. We must improve our educational system,” said Dr. Christopher Bernido.

“With DLP, we believe we have touched a core principle in education. It’s like flying. We can’t fly but with Bernoulli’s principle, it is now possible. We can go against this obvious problem on gravity. We now have an educational program that is robust against fluctuations,” added Bernido.

First implemented in CVIF, which is owned by Dr. Christopher Bernido’s mother, the DLP is now being used as a teaching method in public schools in the provinces of Bohol and Basilan as well as the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Lamitan across all subjects, and in over 600 schools for Physics that is meant to address the chronic shortage of teachers proficient in that subject.

This learning method is characterized by activity-based multi-domain learning, parallel classes, in-classroom protocols for sustained/independent learning, and strategic rest.