USAID gives laptops for

City ALS implementers

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, March 12 (PIA) – If you think out-of-school youth are fated to be inferior, having been left out by their peers, know that it is different in Tagbilaran City and in 11 other cities across the country.

Considering itself lucky to partner with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of Education (DepED) in a project called USAID Opportunity 2.0, Tagbilaran City and the City DepED Division received some nine brand-new laptop computers to be used by the city’s 8 mobile teachers and another one for the city Division’s focal person.

These laptops would be used as part of the Opportunity 2.0’s support in building the capacities of the city’s Alternative Learning System (ALS) implementers, shared USAID representative Lucille Alcala-Dabhi, during the simple ceremony held early afternoon of March 12 at the City Hall Atrium.

In the ceremony were USAID representative Lucille Alcala Dabhi, City Mayor John Geesnell Yap II, DepED Bohol Assistant Division Superintendent Dr. Casiana Caberte, City Division Curriculum Implementation chief John Ariel Lagura, ALS Divison Focal person Elizabeth Rosil Escolano, City DepED School Governance and Operation chief Beatriz Luga, City Sangguniang Kabataan Federation President Raul Aparicio, and ALS mobile teachers recipients of the laptops.

While mainstream educators are struggling to adapt and find new modalities upon which to course learnings to students off sites, the ALS all the more has to improvise especially when some of its students are also engaged in some kind of informal work.

The new equipment is expected to aid the city’s ALS implementers in meeting the widening needs of the OSY population and in the delivery of instructions to those who are enrolled with the DepEDs ALS.

Mayor John Geesnell Yap II, bringing the entire City Government’s gratefulness expressed the profound gratitude to the American people in helping the city by complementing its efforts.

Our teachers are also adapting and learning new modalities to deliver the instructions in these COVID times, and by these help, this will support the students’ dreams to be productive or at least contribute to their success, the young mayor pointed out.

Opportunity 2.0 which provides second-chance opportunities to OSYs is a five year P1.9 billion ($37.5 million) USAID funded project that builds, and advances the on-going programs and existing education systems of the Philippine’s DepED and the country’s premier technical vocational training agency in the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

City Division Curriculum Implementation Chief Dr. John Ariel Lagura bared that the program in partnership with the TESDA hopes to augment the relevant educational training and enhance the employability skills and work chances of the city’s OSY and of the OSYs in the 11 cities across the country.

For her part, Assistant Schools Division Superintendent Dr. Casiana Caberte pointed out that while it is noteworthy that Tagbilaran has been selected among the 12 cities in the country to have the project, she also bared that the city is the first to get the computer laptops. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

DOUBLE THUMBS-UP. City Mayor John Geesnell Yap led the DepED City Division in thanking the American people for Opportunity 2.0 which focuses on helping the city’s out of school youth to get trained some more and compete with the others who go through the mainstream educational system and get the edge in employability. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

RESPONDING TO THE DIVERSE ALS EDUCATIONAL NEEDS. Lenovo thinkpads get to 9 Alternative Learning System implementers in the City from the USAID Opportunity 2.0 project which aims to give second-chance opportunities to the city’s OSYs. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)