DAVAO CITY – The spirit of “bayanihan” among schools here was highlighted as they pooled their resources to help fire-hit Congressman Manuel Garcia Elementary School (CMGES) to produce the modules needed for the opening of classes next week.
School principal Mildred Turillas told The Manila Bulletin that she was grateful for the eight schools that helped them in printing the modules for their almost 800 learners.
Turillas admitted that she personally went around to these schools to seek help in having the modules printed. “The schools were also the ones that provided the bond papers and ink,” she said.
She said that her school was grateful for the nearby schools that helped, namely, Agdao Elementary School, Jose P. Rizal Elementary School, Manuel Roxas Elementary School, Manuel Quezon Elementary School, Sta . Ana Central Elementary School, Zonta Elementary School, Leon Garcia National High School and SPED Bangkal Elementary School.
Turillas particularly cited the Agdao Elementary School as the one that sponsored the printing of the modules for Grades 3 and 4.
Aside from these schools, she added, teachers also were able to gather donations from their friends and other individuals.
The school official admitted that CGMES’ monthly Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE), which is just P10,000, was not proportionate to the needs of the school, especially for the production of modules.
Turillas said the school would be purely adopting modular modality since most of their learners could not afford the online modality.
CGMES mostly serves learners coming from the surrounding densely populated urban poor community.
On September 3, a fire hit a neighboring informal settler community that left 60 houses destroyed. The fire spread to one of the school buildings with eight classrooms, where most of the computers, printers and the modules were stored.
The school official said only about 10 percent of the Module 1 and Module 2 were left. “Unfortunately, most of those burned were Module 1,” she said.
Thus, the school prioritized the production of Module 1, which will be used on the first week of classes, to be on track of their schedule for distribution
A module of each subject consists of at least 25 pages, and every grade has an average of eight subjects.
She pointed that they were trying their best to provide every learner their own modules.
“We wanted it 1:1 to avoid sharing, which is not safe this time because of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic,” the school official explained.
Kindergarten teacher Beth Lagrama bared that the modules for her learners were supposed to be in full color.
But due to budgetary constraints, Lagrama said, they were forced to print some pages in black and white if the colors are not necessary part of the lesson.
Turillas also disclosed that the school badly needed some equipment to replace those destroyed in the fire, adding that even the parents of their learners have also donated several reams of bond paper.
“We are still seeking for possible donors because we really need new computers, printers or photocopiers so that we can produce our own modules for the coming weeks or even months,” she said.