Remote Sultan Kudarat school gets light, educational assistance from AMORE, IBM

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Alliance for Mindanao Off-grid Renewable Energy (AMORE) Program recently inked a partnership with IBM Philippines' KidSmart Early Learning Program to provide improved access to educational facilities and materials to a remote community in Sultan Kudarat.

IBM Philippines Country General Manager Joaquin Quintos IV and Country Marketing Manager Chestnut Andaya turned over aYoung Explorer Learning Center (which IBM developed with Little Tykes) to Ligaya Yere, head teacher of the Lam-alis Elementary School, the only school in Sitio Lam-alis in upland Barangay Datalblao, Columbio, Sultan Kudarat. The collaborative learning facility includes one IBM desktop computer, various software and a teacher's manual covering Math, English and Social Studies for children aged 4-8.

"High-quality early learning programs, with strong teacher training can yield long term gains in student achievement," says Andaya. "With the Kidsmart Program, IBM offers an important opportunity for young learners, who are instinctively drawn to technology as a source of education and fun."

The operation of the Learning Center in Sitio Lam-alis will be made possible by AMORE's energization of the community with a 7-kilowatt microhydro power facility, which was completed late last year.

Ligaya Yere, who has been with the Lam-alis Elementary School for 22 years, says this is the first time that an education program was granted to their school and that she and the rest of her co-teachers are looking forward to teaching the children the various software for learning included in the program.
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"The Kidsmart program provides the 195 students of Lam-alis Elementary School access to quality education, and gives teachers the opportunity integrate technology into early childhood education in an enjoyable, challenging environment," says Yere.

The IBM KidSmart Early Learning Program makes use of information and communications technology to train young minds to develop their intelligences, through the teaching of a relevant and responsive curriculum. It uses pictures more than words, offers variety on a number of topics at different levels, gives feedback to make learning more interesting, and enables children to control the level of difficulty, pace and direction of the program. IBM Philippines' Corporate Community Relations Program donates IBM KidSmart packages to primary and elementary public schools and Eduquest, Inc. provides complementary teacher training.

For Lam-alis, AMORE gave the school teachers training on basic information and communications technology and Eduquest conducted a Teacher Training Program for Early Childhood Educators. Sitio Lam-alis is just one of 205 remote, conflict-affected barangays in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and Western and Central Mindanao that are being energized with stand-alone, sustainable and clean renewable energy by the global NGO Winrock International in partnership with the Department of Energy, the ARMM and the country's largest private energy producer, Mirant Philippines. AMORE has already energized 157 barangays and will energize 48 more before the program closes by the end of the first quarter next year.

IBM, on the other hand, is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and IBM Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services solutions and technology that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage of the new era of business.

"This learning facility would not have been possible if it were not for the electricity that AMORE brought to our remote community. I have been in Sitio Lam-alis for a long time already and it is only now that we are experiencing light, in more ways than one," says Yere.