Leyte chosen as pilot area for alternative education

PALO, Leyte, Sept. 7  -- The Department of Education (DepEd) will incorporate skills training in the existing Alternative Learning System (ALS) in five Leyte towns tagged as pilot area.

DepEd Eastern Visayas Regional Director Ramir Uytico said the pilot stage has registered 75 students in the towns of San Miguel, Calubian, Hilongos, Kananga, and Tolosa.

“Hopefully, if this will be rolled out, all ALS learners and other stakeholders will be involved to strengthen the partnership and eventually expand the program,” Uytico told PNA in an interview Thursday.

The education department launched the project on Tuesday in partnership with a non-government organization and local government units.

The project dubbed as ALS-Education and Skills Training (EST) will train less privileged students on innovative technical vocational skills such as cookery, electrical installation maintenance, 

motorcycle/small engine servicing, agri-crop product, horticulture and shielded metal arc welding.

“Basically, this is an expansion of ALS in the sense to recruit new enrollees from out of school youth and adults without formal schooling. This is for them to acquire different skills and in the process, 

they are getting ready for employment,” said Robert Mangaliman, ALS supervisor for Leyte province.

“In order to acquire EST, there’s no required age limit unlike formal education, which is the beauty of this program, to make sure that no Filipino youth will be left behind,” he added

The education department described ALS as a parallel learning system in the Philippines that provides a practical option to the existing formal instruction. When one does not have or cannot access formal education in schools, the system is an alternate or substitute. ALS includes both the non-formal and informal sources of knowledge and skills.

Eastern Visayas region has 21,000 ALS enrollees, mostly young workers. (SQM/with reports from Reynadel Costillas OJT/PNA)