By Hannah Torregoza
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian is seeking the immediate passage of a bill that would institutionalize the Alternative Learning System (ALS) in the country.
Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian
(FACEBOOK / MANILA BULLETIN)
Gatchalian said it is crucial for the ALS program, the Department of Education’s (DepEd) parallel learning system to the existing formal education system, to reach 24 million Filipino adults aged 15 and above who have not completed basic education.
The senator noted that while the number of ALS enrollees have increased over the years, an overwhelming number of potential learners have yet to be reached.
Citing DepEd’s study, he said there are 2,025,167 enrolled learners between 2016 to 2018 but only 1,329,667 learners were able to complete the program.
“We have 24 million people who did not graduate from high school, so that’s one out of four, and there are one out of ten or ten percent of our population that cannot read and write, so that’s 10 million," Gatchalian said.
"There’s an urgent need to put a lot of attention to ALS because it also captures literacy,” he added.
Gatchalian, chair of the Senate committee on basic education, arts and culture, admits he is "bullish" about the passage of Senate Bill No. 740 or the proposed Alternative Learning System (ALS) Act because the government has made little progress in providing accessible training and education services in every barangay, including far-flung areas.
“That’s why I’m very bullish about this bill because we need to reach out to the 24 million and right now we’re only addressing 600,000 a year. That’s barely one percent of the total required enrollment,” he stressed.
Gatchalian re-filed the measure this 18th Congress as one of his top priority bills. It primarily seeks to institutionalize a flexible education program outside the scope of formal school system to cater to the learning needs of marginalized sectors.
Furthermore, the ALS Act seeks to intensify and expand the reach of non-formal education to adults, out-of-school youth (OSYs), persons deprived of liberty, members of cultural minorities, indigenous people, persons with disabilities (PWDs) and other marginalized sectors of society.
He said the ALS curriculum is designed to help learners acquire the knowledge, skills, and competencies that learners under the formal school system are expected to develop under the K to 12 Program.
During a hearing by the Senate committee on basic education, DepEd Assistant Secretary and ALS Task Force Head G.H. S. Ambat acknowledged the need for the ALS curriculum to evolve.
“There are so many challenges brought about by the fourth industrial revolution so our learners need to learn information and literacy skills, communication skills, life and career skills, which are part of the K-12 program,” Ambat had said during the hearing.
Under the bill, DepEd shall be mandated to conduct training programs for ALS teachers and instructors to ensure the quality of teaching in ALS.
The ALS Mobile Teacher Program will also be strengthened to accommodate learners with special needs.
Mobile teachers-- those who live among the people in remote barangays to conduct intensive community-based training for out-of-school youth and adults--will be given teaching positions with corresponding salary grades to encourage professional growth.
“We want to institutionalize, strengthen, and correct the deficiencies of the program," Gatchalian said.
"If it is a life-changing program, why then are we not giving it focus? Which means that we’re not only wasting resources, but also the time of the learners,” Gatchalian said.