BAGUIO CITY – The oldest elementary school in the city received high-tech gadgets to help students and teachers in their learning.
On Monday, the Department of Education led by Undersecretary Mario Dequito and Assistant Regional Director Soraya Faculo with Samsung Public Affairs Head Arlita Narag and Fronlearners Chief Executive Officer Elaine De Velez launched the Samsung Smart Classroom at the Baguio Central School.
The event was also witnessed by DepEd Baguio Schools Division officials led by OIC Augusto Laban III and School Governance Head Elma Donaal, Principal Esther Litilit, Parents-Teachers Association headed by Benjamin Macadangdang and the teachers and students of the BCS.
The Samsung Smart Classroom project aims to take the lead in building an interactive and collaborative learning environment in remote and underserved schools.
Dequito said that the project which is a partnership among the DepEd, the Frontlearners, and the Samsung will make teaching and learning more fun, which contributes to increasing the students’ interest in learning and in preventing possible drop-outs.
The classroom includes both hardware and software components. For the hardware component, Samsung provides innovative digital learning equipment including tablets, laptops, and printers. The software component, on the other hand, includes the learning management system. Frontlearners, an e-learning content developer and provider that enables blended-learning classes to boost competency, provides the content of the gadgets including the subject matters which are compliant to the K to 12 curriculum.
Samsung also provides teacher training for the use of the gadgets and equipment and the lessons that they would use.
Instead of a blackboard, a touch-enabled large-format display (LFD) sits in front of the classroom. The high-tech whiteboard can project the lecture or an interactive computer program that can be used for exercises.
The classroom was designed by the UP Baguio Fine Arts students as part of their contribution to the recent Brigada Eskwela.
“I am confident that the classroom will serve as an effective tool for teaching and learning,” said Dequito.
Narag explained that the projects is a corporate social responsibility program that aims to bring technology to key schools in the Philippines to improve the learning and teaching experiences.
Baguio Central School was selected with the many factors the Samsung and the DepEd considered, she said.
“We did our initial screening of potential host schools for the Samsung Smart project and we looked at Cordillera and noticed that the Baguio Central School has high scores in the National Achievement Tests including the ICT competency level of the teachers and the quality of leadership of the head teachers and the principal which is very high as well,” shared Narag.
Faculo said that the Baguio Central School with more than 3200 students is the pilot school for this smart classroom in the region. The classrooms would be a great help to students to have an interactive learning since they will be exposed to new kind of gadgets at their young age, she said.
Principal Litilit expressed gratitude for the selection of the heritage school as the recipient of the project which she acknowledged would be a boost for both the students and the teachers in learning and teaching.
She vowed that the students and teachers would maximize the use of the gadgets and equipment and would be taken care of so that it would still serve the other incoming students.
After the launching, Samsung and the Frontlearners team started the training for teachers on the use of the gadgets and equipment./JDP/RMC –PIA CAR
