eSkwela Project:

Community eLearning Centers for Out-of-School Youth and Adults

Progress Report: January - December 2006

eSkwela Project Team

Human Capital Development Group
Commission on Information and Communications Technology
Office of the President, Philippines

Dr. Emmanuel C. Lallana

Commissioner, HDCG-CICT
eSkwela Project Head
lallana@ncc.gov.ph

Maria Melizza Tan

Head Executive Assistant, HCDG-CICT
eSkwela Project Coordinator
mdtan@ncc.gov.ph

Nelvin Olalia
eSkwela Project Staff
nelvin.olalia@gmail.com

Avelino Mejia
eSkwela Project Staff
avemejia@gmail.com

Kathryn Pauso (Jan-Sept 2006)

eSkwela Project Staff
kat_pauso@yahoo.com

Angelita S. Cabatu
TA-Admin/Finance, HCDG
ascabatu@ncc.gov.ph

HCDG – CICT
2nd Floor, CICT – NCC Bldg., C.P. Garcia Avenue
University of the Philippines Campus, Diliman, Quezon City 1101

Ofc.#: +63-2-9200101 local 210

TeleFax #: +63-2-9207412
 eSkwela

Progress Report for January – December 2006

Funded by the APEC Education Foundation

Project Overview

The eSkwela Project is a flagship project of the Commission on Information and

Communications Technology (CICT), through its Human Capital Development Group
(HCDG), that is envisioned to provide ICT-enhanced educational opportunities for
Filipino out-of-school youth and adults. It likewise aims to help reduce the digital
divide and enhance the capacity of these individuals to be successful participants in a
global and knowledge-based economy. The initiative responds directly to a national
development priority and will bring elearning opportunities and ICT for learning
resources to mobile teachers / instructional managers and out-of-school learners in the
Philippines in an exciting, innovative, and locally meaningful way.

Under this project, community-based e-Learning Centers or eSkwelas will be

established in major urban centers around the country to conduct ICT-enhanced
alternative education programs for interested individuals. These centers will serve as
venues where out-of-school learners and other community members can learn new
skills and competencies, review for the Accreditation and Equivalency (A&E) Exam of
the DepEd-Bureau of Alternative Learning System (BALS), and/or help prepare learners
to rejoin the formal school system, if so desired.

CICT-HCDG was able to secure a grant from the APEC Education Foundation
(Korea) for the establishment of eSkwela Centers in four (4) pilot sites, namely: Quezon
City, San Jose del Monte, Cebu City, and Cagayan de Oro City. Recipient communities
are provided with 21 units of networked computers, relevant peripherals, one-year
Internet connectivity, funds for site renovation, relevant educator’s training, elearning
modules (developed by the Sandiwaan Center for Learning), a customized Learning
Management System (LMS), and project monitoring and evaluation. In return, these
communities are expected to commit to the use of the ICT-based eSkwela Instructional
Design – using the elearning materials and the customized LMS – within DepEd’s ALS
A&E framework. Community stakeholders are likewise expected to participate heavily
in the project by managing the Center operations; opening up venues for collaborative,
relevant, and engaged learning; and providing support for community-based learner
projects.

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AEF GRANT

The Grant Proposal for “The Establishment of eSkwela Centers for Disadvantaged
Youth in Urban Areas: Pilot ICT Project to Bridge the Digital Divide)” was submitted to the
APEC Education Foundation (AEF) by the CICT-HCDG, with Sandiwaan Center for
Learning, on 30 September 2005.

On November 17, 2005, AEF announced the approval of the grant amounting to
Two Hundred Thousand US Dollars (US$200,000.00) for the establishment of pilot
eSkwela Centers (http://www.apecef.org/noticenews/news_view.asp?Idx=63) in four (4)
sites. It was one of only six projects chosen among 89 grant proposals submitted to AEF
from various APEC member and non-member economies.

HCDG was expecting the grant to be released as early as January 2006 but due to
delays caused by a change in AEF leadership last December 2005 and additional request
for project information (i.e. counterpart funds, revised project timeline, and budget),
AEF was able to send the first draft of the Grant Contract (Grant No.: AEF-HCDG-0503)
only on 4 April 2006 via electronic mail.

Between April and May, HCDG sent AEF recommendations for contract
revisions, mainly regarding the schedule of fund releases and corresponding changes in
the project timetable. The process took some time since all negotiations had to pass
through and get approved by the AEF Board of Governors. It was finally decided that
the grant will be sent using a 65%-25%-10% remittance schedule.

The final soft copy of the Grant Contract was sent by AEF on 1 June 2006, with
the final print version being sent to HCDG on 6 June 2006. CICT’s Chairman Sales
officially signed the Grant Contract on the same day.

The grant is to be used in the following manner:

CAPITAL OUTLAY (Provision for procurement of Hardware) 29.16%
MOOE

● Professional Services (eLearning Modules) 48.08%

● Recipient preparation (inclusive of Seminars & Trainings) 10.29%
● Connectivity 4.35%
● Project Mgt. & Stakeholders’ Coordination 8.12%

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 A separate interest-bearing bank account for the eSkwela Project, Landbank West
Avenue CA# 0232-1132-94, was activated in early August, with the receipt of the 1st
tranche of the grant amounting to $130,000 or 65% of the total grant. Using that day’s
exchange rate of US$:Php51.23, this amounted to Php 6.66 Million. As of December
2006, the total amount expended was Php 5.02 Million. The balance of Php 1.64 Million
is expected to be used up within the months of January to February 2007. The next
tranche (25%) is expected to be remitted by late February 2007.

Status Summary

The project has five major components, namely: 1) Customized Instructional

Design, 2) Infrastructure Deployment, 3) Community Mobilization and Involvement, 4)
Educators’ Training, and 5) Progress Monitoring and Evaluation.

From December 2005 to July 2006, while waiting for the release of AEF funds, the
eSkwela Project Team was able to accomplish most of the groundwork and
preparations needed to implement the project. Funding support came from Intel
Microelectronics, Inc. and the CICT-Telecommunications Office. When AEF Grant
became available in August 2007 and the Program of Work was approved by the CICT-
OSEC, the project activities went full blast, as shown in the summary table below:

Activities Target Actual Remarks

1. Customized Instructional Design

Module review by TWG;

Version 1

Content Devt 50 module enhancements being
accepted: 20
done; schedule revisited

Version 1 Ready for deployment; limited

Systems Devt 1 completed & functionalities, sufficient for 1st
tested version

Bidding process completed +

2. Infrastructure
4 sites awarded; Jan. 29: QC & SJDM;
Deployment
Mid-Feb: Cebu & CDO

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 Activities Target Actual Remarks

2 POWs submitted (Cebu +

Site
4 sites 2 completed CDO), cash advance being
Renovations
processed

Connectivity 4 sites Possible ISPs identified

Launches 4 sites February-March

CDO 2nd round: Jan. 2006

3. Community Completed; CDO
Well-received; participated in
Mobilization & 4 sites requesting 2nd
by LGUs + DepEd Divisions +
Involvement round
NGOs; networks established

4. Educators’ Lab Mgt Trng (8 trainees):

109 trainees 130 trainees
Training onsite (Jan-Feb)

Appropriate Key Performance

5. Progress Indicators have been
Monitoring & 4 sites researched and identified and
Evaluation discussed with BALS; start of
M&E: start of operations

Customized Instructional Design

The ALS curriculum, improved under the BEC 2002, has at its core, the
enhancement of life skills and lifelong learning skills among its learners, with particular
emphasis on five learning strands, as follows:
• Communication Skills
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Sustainable Use of Resources/Productivity
• Development of Self and a Sense of Community
• Expanding One’s World Vision

Last year, DepEd-BALS underwent the ALS curriculum review to come up with
the Core Competencies Curriculum which identified specific competencies/ skill sets
and the corresponding print modules deemed vital to a learner’s functional literacy. The
review process significantly narrowed down the print modules from 147 to 83 key

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modules for the secondary level A&E program and from 150++ to 58 for the elementary
level A&E program.

The eSkwela Project looks into assisting the DepEd-BALS produce and use
interactive multimedia learning materials for the out-of-school youth and adults in the
country. Towards this end, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between
CICT and DepEd on June 26, 2006 to work together on the project.

Through a Memorandum of Agreement signed on September 13, 2006 under the

AEF Grant, the Sandiwaan Center for Learning (SCL) was given the task of converting
the first set of 50 secondary level A&E core print modules into interactive multimedia
modules. As per agreement, outputs by SCL have been subject to a review process by
the eSkwela Project Team and the BALS-Technical Working Group (BALS-TWG), based
on a Digital Learning Resource Evaluation Rubric developed for this purpose. This
internally generated rubric (a work-in-progress) is based on the BECTA eLearning
Quality Principles and has been reviewed by Dr. Maria Lurenda Suplido-Westergaard,
a noted professor from UP Open University. Accomplished Module Review Forms can
be viewed from http://balsontheweb.wikispaces.com.

As of December 2006, the eSkwela Project Team has accepted the first set of 20
modules developed by SCL, for which they have been paid a total of P2.25 Million (15%
mobilization + 30% 2nd payment). Target completion for the conversion of the
remaining 30 modules under the contract, is April 2007.

To make the ICT-enhanced modules immediately available to the first 4 pilot

eSkwela sites by the time these are launched (February 2007), CICT-HCDG saw the
need for an intermediate phase that will “ICT-enhance” the print modules while
awaiting the release of the interactive multimedia modules to be provided by SCL as
well as provide adult learners a more age-appropriate alternative to the multimedia
interactive modules. This is being done by uploading the soft copies of the print
modules and corresponding session guides for the secondary level A&E Program (total:
86) to http://balsontheweb.wikispaces.com. Each module is then be linked to at least ten
(10) appropriate and relevant educational tools, resources, and activities over the
Internet, thereby exposing out-of-school learners to the wide expanse of educational
opportunities over the Internet. Last November 2006, the team was able to get the
commitment of the Asia Pacific College (APC) to have selected students taking the
National Service Training Program (NSTP) dedicate their service hours in locating
appropriate and relevant Internet sites for the modules and linking them accordingly.
This sub-project runs from January to March 2007.

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 The eSkwela Project Team has likewise coordinated with the Don Bosco (DB)
system and the Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE) of Cebu for the
use of their e-Learning modules on Technical and Vocational Education for the skills
training track of eSkwela. The DB system already has more than 500 e-Learning
modules on various technical subjects (i.e. drafting, welding, automotive, refrigeration,
and computer maintenance). They agreed to share their modules to eSkwela Centers
and plan to use the ALS modules as academic modules for their academic program.
Access www.e-skills.net for sample modules by CITE and DB (www.e-
skills.net.ph/cw/).

To maximize the use of ICT in teaching and learning in the eSkwela framework,
the Project Team has also come up with version 1 of the customized eSkwela Learning
Management System (eS-LMS) that would allow teachers and students to use ICT to
keep track of individual progress, produce blogs, join discussion forums, create and
take online tests, collaborate for projects, etc. The eS-LMS was developed using ATutor,
an open source software freely available over the Internet.

Infrastructure Deployment

The eSkwela Project will be deploying and donating the following equipment to
each of the pilot sites: 20 networked desktop computers, 1 server, 3-in-1 printer, LCD
projector, 2 airconditioning units, digital camera, 21 computer tables, 21 monobloc
chairs, and a fire extinguisher. Open source software (Edubuntu OS v. 6.02,
applications, and educational tools) – compiled by CICT-HCDG – will be pre-installed
by the supplier prior to deployment.

As per approved POW, each site is provided a P100,000.00 site renovation

budget. Site renovation has been completed in both the Quezon City and San Jose del
Monte sites. Cebu and Cagayan de Oro are still awaiting their cash advances, pending
the negotiations with the parties that will accept and liquidate the funds on their behalf.

Bidding was done through the Procurement Service Office of the Department of
Budget Management (DBM-PS) and the CICT-Bids and Awards Committee (CICT-
BAC). The bid through the DBM-PS was awarded to Unison (PCs, server, printer, LAN
router & adapters) last December 2006. Opening of bids for the remaining equipment
will be done by CICT-BAC on Feb. 2, 2007.

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 Equipment will be deployed by the CICT TWG on the week of January 29, 2007
for the QC & SJDM sites, in preparation for their respective inaugurations on Feb. 7 & 9,
2007.

Community Mobilization and Involvement

The eSkwela Project Team had very successful runs of community mobilization
activities. The project has been welcomed with enthusiasm and excitement in each of
the four sites. For each of the sites, the DepEd Division and the LGU served to be the
project team’s primary contacts. For each project presentation, it was reiterated that the
project’s success lies on the continuous support and involvement of the local
community, since they will be the ones managing and conducting the daily ALS
sessions and center operations. The community was likewise requested to provide
support to the customized instructional design by providing the learners with venues
and opportunities to apply what they learned from the modules through actual
community-based projects.

To assure continuous project operations and sustainability, the four sites agreed
that the best model to use is the LGU or LSB (Local School Board) model wherein CICT
will donate the equipment to the local government that will in turn assign the donation
to the DepEd Division for the conduct of the ICT-enhanced ALS Program, supported by
funding from the LSB. The draft Deed of Donation and Memorandum of Agreement
have been circulated in these four sites (checked previously by CICT-Legal) for review,
revisions, and agreement. The legal documents will be formally signed during the
respective inauguration festivities.

Quezon City
The Telecommunications Office in Quezon City had pledged the 1st Floor of the
office building to house the eSkwela Center and other related projects.

The eSkwela Project Team coordinated with the DepEd-QC Division Office to
facilitate the community mobilization in the city. The project presentation was held last
November 2006 to representatives from the DepEd Division, the LGU/Local School
Board, the PESO Office, SB Negotech, and the QC-Jaycees. The team likewise made a
courtesy call to Mayor Feliciano Belmonte who readily supported the project and
promised to replicate the project once a stable model has been established.

San Jose del Monte

The eSkwela Project Team, headed by Commissioner Emmanuel C. Lallana,
coordinated with the Office of Mayor Angelito Sarmiento and the local DepEd and ALS

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representatives to hold an initial stakeholders’ meeting last January 2006. Mayor
Sarmiento showed enthusiasm and pledged support for the project. It was agreed that
the Public Employment Services Office (PESO) would prioritize eSkwela graduates for
future job openings. Site visits were conducted. The Local Government of San Jose del
Monte was having renovations done to a site near the Barangay Mozon Public Market;
it will house the City’s eSkwela site. A second run of the community mobilization was
held last September, with Mayor Sarmiento and most of the city’s barangay captains
and DepEd officials in attendance.

The San Jose del Monte site is located on the 2nd floor of the new Mozon Public
Market.

Cagayan de Oro
The eSkwela Project Team coordinated with the Office of Mayor Vicente Emano,
the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce, and the local DepEd and ALS
representatives to hold an initial stakeholders’ meeting last January 2006. As in QC and
SJDM, the community stakeholders were very grateful to CICT for having selected CDO
as one of the pilot sites for eSkwela. A second one has been set this January 2007 to
review and finalize the legal documents.

The Cagayan de Oro site will be located in the 1st floor of the ALS Building
located in the DepEd-CDO Division compound.

Cebu City
Commissioner Lallana had an initial meeting with the Centre for Industrial
Technology and Enterprise (CITE) in Cebu City last May 2006 to gain support for the
project. From September to November 2006, the project team coordinated with the Local
School Board and the DepEd-Cebu City Division to finalize the project details.

The Cebu site will be located in the 2nd floor of the ALS Building located in the
Tejero National High School compound.

Educators’ Training

For 2006, the project team was able to implement six (6) training/seminar
workshops that had a total of 130 participants.

Upon the invitation of Commissioner Lallana and in support of the eSkwela

Project, Professor Timothy Unwin of the Royal Halloway, University of London and

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ICT4E advocate visited the Philippines last January 2006. He conducted two workshops
for CICT, other NGOs, and the academe on: 1) ICT and the Design of Teacher Training
Programs and 2) Monitoring and Evaluation in ICT4E activities. Prior to the actual
receipt of the AEF Grant, Intel Microelectronics, Philippines sponsored the conduct of
these workshops. These allowed Prof. Unwin to share global experiences and practices
with regards to various aspects of ICT in Education. The audience (averaging 35 each
workshop, targeted: 25 each) was composed of representatives from various
government agencies dealing with education (DepEd and CHED), NGOs, Teacher
Education Institutions, and others.

As part of the cooperation agreement between the DepEd and CICT, the eSkwela
Project Team coordinated with the office of Director Carolina Guerrero of BALS for the
conduct of a 10-day teacher training workshop on ICT in Education for the 7-member
BALS-TWG in June-July 2006. The training workshop was divided into a 24-hour
training course and a 56-hour workshop. The training course included a review of ICT
Basics, productivity tools, and e-Learning, as well as an introduction to the iSchool
Webboard that focused on the use of online educational tools and resources. The
workshop that followed focused on enhancing the BALS Core Competencies
Curriculum print modules based on educational resources and modules researched
over the Internet. The goal of the workshop was to make content and design
recommendations to and set parameters/specifications that will guide SCL on the digital
conversion process. From this workshop was born the Digital Learning Resources
Evaluation Rubric, based on the BECTA eLearning Quality Principles. The rubric was
used for the module review process mentioned earlier.

Each of the eSkwela sites were requested to send three (3) representatives to the
Sustainability Training Workshop held last October 2006 – the DepEd-Division ALS
Supervisor, an LGU/Local School Board representative, and a mobile teacher or a local
partner representative. Two members from the BALS-TWG joined the workshop as
well, for a total of 14 eSkwela participants. It was during this workshop that the four
sites decided on adopting an LGU/Local School Board-led model for their respective
eSkwela Centers.

In November 2006, the project team conducted two (2) implementations of the
Teacher Training on the eSkwela Instructional Design – one in the ADOC Laboratory of
CICT for the QC and SJDM mobile teachers / instructional managers, and another in the
NCC-FOO/ DepEd-Cebu Laboratory for the Cebu and CDO participants. Each site was
requested to send 8 participants to the training workshop. DepEd-Central and DepEd-
Cebu likewise sent a number of representatives to the training. So, instead of just
training 32 participants, the project team was able to train 38 participants in the two (2)

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implementations. CICT-HCDG is likewise partnering with Oracle Foundation’s
Think.com Program to provide the eSkwela teachers and learners with access to the
Think.com global education community.

The lab management theoretical and hands-on training will be conducted onsite
once the deployment has been finished. This would ensure that the lab managers will
be confident enough to maintain the equipment on his/her own once the eSkwela
Center start operating. The CICT-HCDG technical team will be training a total of eight
(8) participants – or two (2) from each site.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Professor Unwin designed a research instrument used for the conduct of Focus
Group Discussions among OSY last January 2006. The FGDs were meant to elicit their
opinions and attitudes on their learning needs and the potential of ICT to help them.
These were conducted in Smokey Mountain, Cagayan de Oro, and San Jose del Monte
as part of establishing baseline information and assessment of needs of eSkwela’s target
beneficiaries. The results of the FGS were collated in a paper submitted for publication
in the international journal Children’s Geographies.

Mobile teachers were likewise interviewed to share their practices and

experiences with the learners in the current ALS Community Learning Centers. Data
from these interviews will be used in enhancing the eSkwela instructional design and
setting policies and procedures for smooth center operations.

The Project Team identified possible indicators for the M&E, mainly based on
resources from InfoDev and UNESCO-Bangkok. The team will consolidate these with
the performance indicators set by DepEd-BALS for their A&E Program. Regular
progress monitoring and evaluation activities – online discussions, surveys/interviews,
reports, and site visits – will be conducted to collect feedback and recommendations on
how to further improve the eSkwela framework and operations. In connection with
this, a Mid-term Assessment Conference scheduled in May 2007 and a Completion of
Project Conference in September 2007 will be conducted to allow the implementers to
review and discuss possible improvements to the design. The project team targets the
submission to AEF of an eSkwela Operations Manual on October 2007, along with the
Completion of Project Report.

The team is likewise looking into partnering with DepEd-BALS and the UP Open
University for a much-needed Impact Study.

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 Table of Upcoming Activities
Activities Target Months

equipment deployment January

inauguration of 4 sites February

February (15)
module delivery & acceptance
April - May (15)
Follow-up Training Workshops Feb & July
Mid-term Assessment Conference May
Completion of Project Conference September

Submission of Final Project Report &

early October
eSkwela Operations Manual
February -
regular M&E activities
September

Networking

The eSkwela Project was presented during the following events: ASEAN Seminar
on eLearning 2005 (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) and Emerging Technologies in the
Philippines 2020 (Manila, Philippines), 5th National eLearning Conference (Manila,
Philipines), and in the International Conference on AEF Activities 2006 (Cancun,
Mexico). The eSkwela Project was also presented as part of CICT-HCDG’s ICT4E
Program during the following events: ICT Roadmap 2006-2010 (Manila), National
Training Programme for Teacher Educators on ICT in Social Development (Jakarta,
Indonesia), various teacher training programs conducted by CICT-HCDG, Intel’s
Choices and Opportunities II: A Regional Conference on Open Source Software (Hanoi,
Vietnam).

HCDG likewise reported on the progress of the eSkwela Project to the DFA-
OUIER, as AEF’s local counterpart last June 2006.

Representatives from several local government units/ civic groups have indicated
their interest in putting up an eSkwela Center in their respective areas like Smokey
Mountain (Manila), Baguio City, Marikina City, and Meycauayan (Bulacan).

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