DUMAGUETE CITY, Sept. 10 (PNA) — The Department of Education (DepEd) Negros Oriental division has launched the division-initiated K to 12 Localized Instructional Materials dubbed as the “Big Books” where stories and legends of all the barangays within the district are printed for school children to read and understand.
The launching activity Thursday was graced by Luz Jandayan, chief of the curriculum learning and management division of DepEd Region 7 and was attended by more than 1,500 to 2,000 teachers from the more than 700 schools in the Negros Oriental Division and Gov. Roel Degamo, Vice Gov. Edward Mark Macias and some board members.
DepEd Negros Oriental division superintendent of schools Dr Salustiano Jimenez said that the idea came about while visiting the different schools in the division and when asked about their history or legends, he can’t find answers from the students including the teachers themselves.
The idea is for every district to come up with stories and legends of all the barangays in their districts, and later found out Negros Oriental is very rich in legends that need to be treasured and preserved.
Jimenez considers the project “Big Books” a way to indigenize the K to 12 curriculum as provided for in RA 10533 entitled An Act Enhancing the Philippine Basic Education System of 2013 where production and development of locally produced teaching and learning materials is encouraged subject to the approval of the regional DepEd in accordance with national policies and standards.
The contents of the Big Book will not only be for local consumption but for the whole world since it will be placed in the website of the division.
The Big Books will be placed in a library hub that can be borrowed from one school district to the other like a mobile library.
According to Jimenez the purpose of the project is to develop the reading habit and apprehension of the students at the very young age especially from Grades 1 to 3 with interesting stories and legends that are supported with pictures and drawings, in their respective places, stories that are written in big letters with the use of the mother tongue, Pilipino and English.
The Big Book is designed for children with different mental conditions and models for them to adopt, including later in the digital format. Gathering of the stories and legends started last year.
Jandayan said the project was the first of its kind in Region 7 that also solicited the support and cooperation of Gov. Degamo who was willing to help in the reproduction of the big book project.
She said this was one way of addressing the problem of pupils who were non-readers in at least 100 schools in the division that were identified earlier in a survey conducted by the central office.
“This will be of great help for students to develop their reading and study habits and to reduce the number of non-reading students,” she said.
With the launching, DepEd region 7 will monitor the integration of the big books project to the different subject areas, Jandayan told reporters in Dumaguete Thursday.
Degamo was so proud this project was launched under the leadership of Dr. Jimenez and was hoping the rest of the schools division in the province will do the same. This is not only educational, but one way of having the children and adults alike know that we are very rich in stories and legends.
Degamo added it would be best that Negrense would know first their beginnings, their history before learning the history of other countries. (PNA)