Community Development Project of AB Debate Parliament and UST History Society: Brgy. Kanluran Kabubuhayan, Laguna
For the A.Y. 2020-2021, the AB Debate Parliament (ABDP) and UST History Society (UST HST SOC) have partnered up to reach out to the community in Laguna, Brgy. Kanluran Kabubuhayan. Particularly for this year’s community development project, both organizations focused on providing assistance to the students who are having difficulties in adjusting to the new educational set-up, modular-based learning.
In assuring that our plans will be able to pin point the specific problems that students are experiencing, the organizers consulted with the AB Community Development Coordinator, Asst. Prof. Ronald M. Castillo, and coordinated with the community resource persons, Brgy. Secretary Rajalen Mayani and Brgy. Captain Olimpio Violanta.
In formulating the output for this project, the organizers divided the tasks into four different phases. Namely, these are; (1) Data Collection, (2) Output Formulation, (3) Output Distribution, and (4) Project Evaluation.
Data Collection (Phase 1)
After the AB Community Development Coordinator, Asst. Prof. Ronald M. Castillo, introduced us to the resource person of Brgy. Kanluran Kabubuhayan, we scheduled a meeting for our data and gathering. Prior to the meeting, both the community development heads of ABDP and HST SOC have already formulated the interview questions that will be used for gathering information about their community. These questions, however, were revised upon consulting with Mr. Castillo and taking his comments and suggestions into consideration. The meeting proper was held in Zoom Cloud Meetings on March 5, 2021 from 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM. The resource persons present in the meeting were Brgy. Captian Olimpio Violanta and Brgy. Secretary Rajalen Mayani.
A screenshot of the recorded interview with Brgy. Capt. Olimpio Violanta and Brgy. Secretary Rajelen Mayani last March 5, 2021. Unfortunately, due to the bad internet reception, Mr. Violanta and Ma’am Mayani could not open their cameras.
The first question that was asked of them was to describe the state of their community and the essential problems that need to be urgently addressed.
The first problem that they discussed is regarding the health center in their barangay. Particularly, Mr. Violanta mentioned how the pandemic has caused problems in the construction and functionality of their health institution. Not only did it halt the building process but he also mentioned that the budget allocated for its completion was insufficient. As a result, he expresses his dismay that the health center, which is a crucial institution at a time like this, is not functional.
Although the problem was acknowledged and taken note of, the organizers have acknowledged that they do not have yet the proper resources and skills in addressing this problem. Realizing that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for us to address the budget issue of their health center in a short notice, the organizers redirected the interview in asking questions that are related educational sector.
Questions regarding the resources and learning materials of students, how students are coping up in online classes, and if the pandemic had any effect to the number of enrollees were brought up during the interview.
With regards to the learning resources and materials, Mr. Violanta explained that the students in the barangay adopted a modular setup of learning. Wherein, schools would provide students with modules that contain lessons that they need to study. According to him, there were no problems with the distribution of modules. The barangay has not received any complaints regarding students not getting their modules. Similarly, in the aspect of enrollees, the community did not face problems of reduced rate of enrollment.
However, regarding the aspect of coping up, both students and parents struggle in the new system of learning. Mr. Violanta explained that, since the setup is modular learning, both parents and children were having difficulties adjusting. In the part of the parents, Mr. Violanta said that parents are forced to teach their children topics that they, themselves, do not even understand. Especially in subjects like English and Math, some parents feel that what they are teaching to their children is not right and insufficient. Likewise, the children themselves are experiencing problems in absorbing and understanding the lessons. As Mr. Violanta pointed out, the modular learning is ineffective in making the students learn because when it comes to answering homework, the students would just ask some of their parents to answer it for them. Thus, they don’t really develop any learning at all.
Overall, the most important information that the organizers were able to extract from this interview was that the adjustment to modular based learning had significant effects to the student’s academic undertakings. More specifically, children have been more demotivated to study.
Output Formulation (Phase 2)
From the information that was gathered in the interview, the project heads have come to the realization that the main problem that needs to be addressed in our project is the demotivation of students. The initial plan was to create two outputs. One was an educational infographic that would supposedly serve as a complementary learning material to the modules they use. While the other was a motivational video to remind these students on why they still need to pursue their studies even during these trying times.
For the creation of infographic, what the organizers planned to do was to focus on one grade level and one topic in one subject. The reason for these limitations is because the organizers knew and acknowledged the fact that it was not feasible to create reviewers for all the topics that elementary students are studying. Moreover, when we consulted the Brgy. Secretary, she proposed that we gear our project in helping Grade 1 students with their math subject.
Supposedly, the infographic’s function was to be a reviewer and a complementary material to the modules that they can use. However, this endeavor was not anymore pursued because the organizers failed to acquire a soft copy of the modules of the Grade 1 students. Particularly, because of the spike in COVID-19 case, there had been complications with its distribution. In our timetable, May 10 – May 14 were the dates allotted for the creation of the infographic, but because we were not able to secure the soft copy in this timeframe, we have decided to forego of this output.
The other output we planned for this project is the motivational video. Unlike the infographic that required soft copies of modules, the video did not require anything but the project implementer’s presence. Since this community development project is a collaboration of two organizations, the tasks were divided accordingly. ABDP was in-charge of shooting the video and delivering the message about the importance of studying. The HST SOC, on the other hand, was in-charge of editing the video. They were the ones who put the effects and animations to make it more appealing to the viewers.
The final video output was accomplished 3 days before the scheduled distribution, and was sent to the Asst. Prof. Ronald M. Castillo for checking. After Mr. Castillo gave his approval, the organizers prepared to send their output to the community. Given the limitations brought by the pandemic, the distribution of output was mainly done through online means. The google drive link, containing the video output, was sent to the email of the barangay and the barangay was the one who disseminated it to the respondents. Supposedly, there should have been 30 respondents. However, because a lot of families and students are having a hard time securing a stable internet connection, there were only two people, out of thirty, who were able to view the output. This was shown in the post-evaluation survey wherein only two were able to answer
In relation to not being able to meet the target number of beneficiaries, there were only two people who were able to evaluate the project output. The google form link was sent by the barangay secretary to the two people who were able to watch the video.
Learnings and Recommendations
Although the plans of the project were well thought, there had been certain roadblocks that the organizers encountered. One of which was not being able to reach out to all of the 30 respondents in the community. The organizers overlooked the problem of internet connection stability, thus, they were not able to make the output mor conducive to the situation of the people. Provided this, one of the improvements that can be done in future projects is to think of alternative means to deliver the output. Especially if the desired output is online-based, it would be better to take into account how the beneficiaries are going to make it useful in their own state.
PROJECT DETAILS:
Target Beneficiaries:
Elementary students of Brgy. Kanluran Kabubuhayan, Laguna
Date:
May 17, 2021
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Project Proponents:
Regine Andrea Estacio
Angelo Jade Caputolan
Judie Francesca Montejo
Mark Neil Vergara
Aaron Kane Vergel
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