MORE than 1,000 learners stand to benefit this school year with the launch on Wednesday of a rolling school program initiated by Taiwan’s government with support from its Philippine counterpart and business community.
The Taiwan Excellence Mobile Classroom, which was unveiled during its media presentation at the Manila Hotel, is a school-on-wheels model meant to provide quality education to marginalized members of society, especially those in the countryside.
This came from the idea of Sustainable Energy and Enterprise Development for Communities (SEED4com), which started with bicycle and sidecar types of a classroom equipped with minimal amenities. Besting entries from 61 other countries, such concept won in the Taiwan Excellence: Sharing is Caring competition early this year.
Now fully realized as the Taiwan Excellence Mobile Classroom, it comes in a truck with display monitors, laptops for both learners and teachers, solar panels with a full inverter system, battery storage with a three-kilowatt per hour capacity, speaker systems and microphones, foldable chairs, tables and tents courtesy of Taiwanese companies supporting the endeavor.
The Department of Education (DepEd) provides the Alternative Learning System modules it developed for use in its rollout in Bulacan, Cebu, Laguna and Quezon Province. Learners will be taught subjects, such as Integrated Math, Entrepreneurship, Life Skills, Digital Citizenship, and Basic Education.
“The mobile classroom project will offer greater educational opportunities for learners of all ages in the Philippines. Today’s event is a start to connect with respective communities. It’s a start to unite bilateral goodwill for those in need, and it’s also a start to trigger more parties go for global ESG [environmental, social and corporate governance],” said Cynthia Kiang, director-general of Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT).
“Based on the existing solid foundation of friendship between Taiwan and the Philippines, with concerted efforts [from the Taiwanese companies], I believe our bilateral relationship was stepped up to new levels of excellence,” she added.
Ambassador Michael Peiyung Hsu of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in the Philippines could not agree more to her as both countries have expansive interactions in many areas, including trade and investment.
In fact, he cited that Taiwan is the eighth largest trading partner of the Philippines, with their bilateral trade reaching $8.29 billion in 2021.
“I’m glad that Taiwan Excellence has made a lot of efforts to have mobile classroom come true. Through Taiwan Excellence, the mobile classroom can reach learners in remote areas with the support of products made in Taiwan from several outstanding Taiwanese companies,” Hsu said of the government-to-government cooperation between the two Asian neighbors.
Speaking on behalf of the Philippine government, Vice President and Department of Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio expressed her gratitude to the Taiwanese government and Taiwan Excellence for encouraging innovative ideas related to society’s sustainable growth and environmental preservation.
“In an archipelagic country like the Philippines, mobile classrooms ensure equitable access to education, while promoting the use of renewable energy in remote areas. It will also help us ensure education in emergencies [by] engaging children and youth [who] will, otherwise, be deprived of education and the normalcy of school life,” she said, while urging Filipino teachers, engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs to create innovative solutions to help the country’s post-pandemic recovery.
“We applaud the efforts of BOFT and TAITRA [Taiwan External Trade Development Council] for creating the platform to realize these oppotunities and these initiatives. We, therefore, look forward to more similar developments to improve and upgrade our educational system with the help of our closest friend and neighbor Taiwan,” added Silvestre Bello III, chairman of Manila Economic and Cultural Office.
The MECO envoy confirmed this as he bared that this classroom-on-wheels project will reach at least 55 barangays, benefitting almost 1,700 learners of all ages before the end of this year.
“I believe there will be more in-government programs between our two countries. Our friendship and relationship will for sure continue to grow and prosper,” Hsu added.
Image credits: Roy Domingo