E-Skwela” Hub – Phl’s First – Opens In Baguio

August 22, 2020 Community Billboard

BAGUIO CITY – An e-learning center, perhaps the first of a kind in the country, opened at the Baguio City library on Thursday, to cater for free thousands of teachers, learners and parents.
“With the blended learning mode, already our new normal, this coming school opening, the “E-skwela” hub,” explained Ang Probinsiyano Partylist Representative Ronnie Ong, who together with Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong and private firm Front Row Philippines CEO Samuel Verzosa Jr. inaugurated the “E-skwela Hub”, will be helping thousands with online learning and blended learning.
People going to the “E-skwela” center can get free use of personal computer with wifi, and free printing for the first ten pages of documents.
This is part of the pilot program with Frontrow Philippines and Rep. Ong’s office to support the Baguio City government’s efforts and the Department of Education (DepEd) in making sure no student is left behind.  Some 20 more cities and towns all over the country will have their own “E-skwela Hubs” in the coming days, beamed the Ang Probinsyano partylist representative, citing even the remote Camotes Island will have its own e-learning hub for free.
With the new normal of education under the blended learning system, classes will be conducted online and via printed module delivery.  It is a hard reality that not all students have access to fast and reliable internet connection nor printers available in their homes for their modules,  Rep. Ong explained.   With the establishment of the blended modality of learning, the Hub will be the community’s supplementary e-learning center for those without access to the internet or printers, he stressed.
Not all students have access to fast and reliable internet connection nor printers available in their homes for their modules.   With the establishment of the program, the students will at least be eased from the challenges of the new mode of learning, Ong further explained.
Students and teachers will have to pre-register with their LGU or barangay and they are provided a stub with their details for easy tracking and monitoring.  Each studen and teacher can just be given an ID Reference number.
Also, upon entry, thermal scanners must be used. There should also be disinfectants such as alcohol sprays, foot baths at the hub’s entrance, etc. A no mask, no entry policy should be implemented, and physical distancing should be practiced.
The E-skwela hub in Baguio City is initially equipped with eight tables with acrylic dividers with eight chairs, eight CPUs with eight monitor sets and keyboards, two printers, ten gallons of alcohol, one-foot press, ten reams of paper and ten printer ink bottles.   The continuous supply of reams of paper and printer ink bottles will be taken care of by Front Row,Verzosa Jr. promised.  “It will be sustainable,” reiterated Rep. Ong.
Magalong who cited that the city tried to experiment a similar endeavor two months ago and it would cost the city P80M a month.  “Where will the LGU get this?”  he exclaimed, while thanking Rep. Ong and Frontrow’s effort for the e-learning hub.  “I hope this will be replicated all over the country, especially among financially-challenged LGUS,” the mayor added.
Artemio A. Dumlao