The Education Of Miss Briones. Otherwise, How DepEd Could Have More Wisely Spent P100 Billion Pursuing Learning Goals For The Country’s Students

As I write this, I’m thinking of the millions of farmers who need
e-learning themselves in modern productive and prosperity-leading materials and methods in their farming. 

Perhaps the DA can learn from the DepEd?

Above, you are looking at the cover of a printout of educational materials conceived for and published by the Department of Education, DepEd, under Secretary of Education Leonor Briones. (images: modules[1] from Philippine Basic Education; E-Learning[2] from Deccan Herald)

The “For Teachers” book looks good, doesn’t it?
Looks good, yes.
But looks deceive!

DepEd calls them Self-Learning Modules, SLMs – now, no matter how good the SLMs are, the almost-P100 Billion budget could have been spent 100 times more wisely!

This is a teacher speaking, BSA major in Ag Education, UP Los Baños 1965 graduate, Civil Service Professional Level, passing the exam at 80.6%.

And the grade I am now going to give the above Self-Learning Modules book is 4. Yes, 4. On my alma mater’s University of the Philippines’ grading scale[3], 4 is Conditional.

That is not saying the Secretary of Education is unintelligent – it is just saying that her advisers on e-learning are not that smart digitally!

DepEd’s Self-Learning Modules are the most
maximally expensive educational materials
I have ever seen – and only minimally useful.

Instead of being printed, the SLMs should have instead been uploaded in their digital forms for both teachers and students – and worked onscreen, not on paper. In such a way, the first attempt at learning could be graded; after which, with the original e-copies, any number of repeated readings and workings on same materials are free, to be counted as self-learning without charge against the students themselves.

More than 24.7 million students – 22.5 million in public schools – enrolled for 2020-2021[4] (ANN, 09 October 2020, “DepEd: Self-Learning Modules Are 'Quality Assured' Despite Errors,” ABS-CBN.com). As of the date ANN reports, 667 million SLMs had been printed. Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto had the low estimate of a total of P93.6 Billion needed to print all the pages of the modules, at a printing cost of P1/page (Doña Magsino, 17 August 2020, “DepEd Needs P30B More For Printing Of Self-Learning Modules – Recto[5],” GMAnetwork.com).

Option: With that gargantuan P93.6 Billion budget, in a 1-ha area purchased in each of the 1,488 towns in the country, DepEd can construct an Internet zone-schoolshop (the cities can take care of their own) – that gives P62.9 Million for each Internet zone-schoolshop and should be more than enough for area, buildings, facilities, equipment, Internet connections, supplies and salaries.

With Miss Briones’ Self-Learning Modules that expand expenses and limit learning rewards, as a teacher, I want to cry. As a self-taught digital writer, editor & desktop publisher, I want to cry my heart out.

Reading and thinking of the P93.6 Billion the Department of Education, DepEd, will have spent by the end of this year 2020 for those self-limiting SLMs, I want to cry a river!@517

 

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[1]https://www.philippinesbasiceducation.us/2013/05/deped-k-to-12-modules-for-sale-in-2013.html

[2]https://www.deccanherald.com/content/639382/how-make-digital-education-more.html

[3]https://www.ac.upd.edu.ph/images/stories/forms/UniversityGuidelines.pdf

[4]https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/10/09/20/deped-self-learning-Modules-are-quality-assured-despite-errors

[5]https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/751678/deped-needs-p30b-more-for-printing-of-self-learning-Modules-recto/story/

A New Look At “The New Thinking for Agriculture” By Secretary Of Agriculture William Dar

For drama, look at the above image that I reproduced after reversing & inverting “New Thinking For Agriculture” and the “8 Paradigms” that contribute to its actualization. With the new thinking, the mind of Secretary of Agriculture William Dollente Dar, WDD, has to be able to discern things out at any order even as he goes around the country serving his people.

So, how busy are the mind, hands and feet of WDD? Let’s see. Here are random pickings from WDD’s Facebook webpage:

30-Sept-2020: WDD leads inauguration and turnover of Bado Dangwa-Guilayon Farm-to-Market Road in Tabuk City, Kalinga under the Philippine Rural Development Project.

30-Sept-2020: WDD visits Tarlac JelFarm, which will ship about 5 tons of okra daily as the harvest season begins. Come peak season, with full blast operations, it can ship an average of 13-15 tons everyday. 14 barangays of Tarlac and about 300 farmers are involved.

30-Sept-2020: Department of Agriculture, DA Regional Field Office 2 distributes at least 50 bags of Open Pollinated Variety white corn seeds to farmers of Santo Tomas, Isabela as prelude to farm consolidation and clustering.

01-Oct-2020: WDD formally turns over P24-million Small Water Impounding Project to Arapaap Small Water Irrigation System Association on September 30, 2020 in Allacapan, Cagayan.

05-Oct-2020: DA says buying price for dry paddy rice reaches P19 per kilo, at par with the maximum buying price set by the National Food Authority.

08-Oct-2020: San Fernando City, La Union – P36,105,000 already released by the DA to backyard hog raisers affected by the African Swine Fever in the region. Involving 1,069 beneficiaries, 7,221 swine head.

08-Oct-2020: WDD reiterates benefits of Rice Tariffication Law and Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, saying that these will help the rice sector regain strength and resiliency by increasing productivity and reducing production cost.

08-Oct-2020: In the “Food Security in the Subic-Clark Economic Corridor Webinar,” WDD explains underlying factors why PH farmers are not competitive and earning enough. “First, our farmers remain individualistic, unorganized and thus are not linked directly to markets. Second, our farmlands are small and fragmented. The saving-link is to organize them into cooperatives, and thereafter consolidate and cluster their farms to attain economies of scale, and thus be competitive. We will assist them to partner with big business and venture jointly into food value chain enterprises.”

08-Oct-2020: WDD and Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte discuss the establishment of the National Urban Agriculture Research and Learning Center hosted by the City.

The above are selected actualizations of portions of the 8 paradigms of “The New Thinking for Agriculture:”

(1)   Modernization

(2)   Industrialization

(3)   Promotion of exports

(4)   Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms

(5)   Infrastructure development

(6)   Higher budget & investment

(7)   Legislative support

(8)   Roadmap development.

In short, thinking national and acting local simultaneously, Secretary of Agriculture William Dar must be wakeful all the time.

Something that bothers me as Mr Dar pushes for “The New Thinking for Agriculture” is I see no active journalistic support by the Philippine Agricultural Journalists, PAJ. Can I help, PAJ?@517

 

Where It Wallows In Poverty Amidst Plenty, PH Agriculture In Neglect & In Promise

No more poor farmers!

Easier said than done. “If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men's cottages princes' palaces” – Portia, The Merchant Of Venice

Coops to the rescue!
Because, as an English proverb says,
“Many hands make light work.”

Given the decades-old poverty problems of PH Agriculture exacerbated by the pandemic lockdown, given that I am an alumnus of the University of the Philippines Los Baños, UP Los Baños, that I have been a digital-based crusading writer since 2005, and that I have been a member of the Nagkaisa Multipurpose Cooperative for several years, I have been earnestly thinking of real & digital “Super Coops” as private partners of the Department of Agriculture, DA, in the national effort towards inclusivedevelopment, that is, where the poor farmers are actors and reactors, benefactors as well as beneficiaries of the theory & practice of agriculture. (image of many hands raised[1] from Filo Coop)

I first came out publicly with the idea of Super Coops 7 years ago (see my essay, “The Super Coops Of 2014[2],” 30 October 2013, Nagkaisa), pleading with Senator Cynthia Villar to author a bill towards “The Village Cooperatives Act Of 2014,” amending RA 9520 and creating a new Cooperatives Management Authority. Management, after Development. For inclusive growth of villages. Nothing came out of it, but I’m not giving up on the Super Coops – or Senator Villar!

Being a wide reader, in print and online, I know that our Secretary of Agriculture William Dar is the first chief of the DA, the first knight errant brandishing not a sword but a battle plan to conquer once and for all the poverty of Filipino farmers and bring them up to the level of prosperity – and stay there!

He calls that battle plan “The New Thinking for Agriculture” with its 8 contributing battles to be won that he calls “paradigms” – Modernization, Industrialization, Promotion of exports, Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms, Infrastructure development, Higher budget & investment, Legislative support, and Roadmap development.

I am looking at Super Coops as the mobilizer for The New Thinking from production to marketing of agricultural goods.

Overall, each Super Coop enables and ensures economies of scale in agriculture: mini, small, medium, and large operations. It not only provides the funds; it also provides the policies and procedures that must be followed by the farmer borrowers.

The Super Coop also sees to it that the new and/or improved theories and practices of Agriculture are implemented by the farmer members who borrow funds.

Not only production but harvesting, postharvest processing including warehousing, and marketing, are taken care of by the Super Coop. Absolutely no middlemen or any go-betweens are involved – the Super Coop works out contracts with institutional and/or large scale consumers all the time.

A Super Coop is the Business Manager of farmer members. They need it, as we all know farmers are still wallowing in the mud of usury without realizing it!@517

 

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[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65gZeAZPuRQ&ab_channel=FiloCoop
[2]http://nagkaisa.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-super-coops-of-2014.html

Loyalty Day, UPCA – Morphing From Celebrating 1918 Volunteers To Recognizing Modern Distinguished And Outstanding Alumni

You don’t know this, but on 10 October 1966, 

I was The Boy Who Cried Wolf that
changed the nature of UP Los Baños
Loyalty Day celebrations forever.
(image: boy shouting[1] from Epic!)

That day, I came out with an open letter titled “What Did You Do In The War, Daddy?” That year came out a comedy film with that title directed by Blake Edwards for the Mirisch Company in Panavision, starring James Coburn and Dick Shawn (Wikipedia). (title[2] image from Discogs) What kind of letter was it?

Ah, I knew it was a Labor of Love.
I wrote and typed my open letter “What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?” on my portable Olivetti Lettera 32. After revising, I cut the text on stencil and ran copies of it myself with the mimeographing machine of the Student Body Organization, SBO, at the 2^nd floor of Baker Hall, with permission of and under watch by SBO President William Padolina (yes, he is the one who became Science Secretary many years later). I had to tell him first what it was, and he did not say anything. Afterwards, I gave copies for him to distribute; with the bulk of the copies, I stood waiting by the College Gate (since replaced) welcoming those vehicles coming in who innocently accepted copy after copy. They did not know it was a bomb that reading the text would detonate. They did not know that

My letter was Anti-Loyalty Day!

Who suggested I write such letter? Nobody. The idea just came to me.

My 1966 Claim: The UPCA Volunteers of 1918
did it out of subservience to America!

Don’t forget: UPCA was founded by American scientists. On 10 October 1918, 193 students and 27 faculty members enlisted to serve in the Philippine National Guard (https://loyaltyday.uplb.edu.ph/). My open letter argued that those 220 volunteered for the wrong reason – the war was in Europe and America was not directly involved. Showing servitude to America, the UPCA loyals volunteered for the wrong war!

The reaction of the Cow College was revulsion against me – and so my appointment as Substitute Instructor in Horticulture was notrenewed the next semester.

I realized my open letter was also a Labor of Hate,
only many, many years later. But better late than never. It dawned on me that World War I was not a European war but Dictatorship vs Democracy. So each of those Cow College volunteers of 1918 was honorable and I was not – I had misreadhistory.

Sorry for that!

Still, my mistaken open letter had a profound effect I am very proud of, if unintended – that is, over the years from 1966, slowly the nature of celebrating Loyalty Day transformed from simply celebrating One-Time Volunteerism to

Celebrating the Continuing Loyalty of UPCA/UP Los Baños Alumni, and the Distinguished as well as Outstanding Services they do as well as have done for their fellowmen in office or society. Priceless.

Now, you can’t take that Outstanding Historical Accomplishment away from me!@517

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[1]https://www.getepic.com/book/30684711/the-boy-who-cried-wolf

[2]https://www.discogs.com/Henry-Mancini-And-His-Orchestra-What-Did-You-Do-In-The-War-Daddy/release/4677917

How PH Can Increase Rice Yields And Decrease Critics Of Secretary Of Agriculture William Dar!

I am inclined to think someone is trying to get William Dar’s goat as PH Chief of the Department of Agriculture, DA, to get himself or his candidate to the position, if & when Mr Dar resigns in disgust.

Mr Dar has issued a statement in public (from a DA news release):

He issued the statement to debunk criticisms and perceptions that the current Department of Agriculture (DA) leadership “made the country food import-dependent” despite abundant land and sea resources capable of producing most of the food requirements of 110 million Filipinos.

PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar has
made the country food import-dependent!?

He must be good at being bad because he has only been Secretary of Agriculture for 14 months!

But no Sir. Since 2007, I have known him only that when Mr Dar is good, he is the best!

Incontrovertible proof is that as Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, based in India, from 2000 to 2014, he team-captained ICRISAT from being dead last to being first among the 15 international centers in the CGIAR Group based in France. (I know because I was his WFH consulting writer in the Philippines.)

Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the Duterte administration continues to put premium on protecting the interests and welfare of the Filipino farmers and fishers, and that sourcing additional food commodities from other countries remains a “last resort” policy.

Importing food is at the expense of everyone.

In fact, Secretary Dar said the country’s dependency on imported food has been increasing during the past 30 years, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Food security means farmers’ security, fishers’ security.

Our vision of a food-secure and resilient Philippines with prosperous farmers and fisherfolk remains, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and onto the new normal. We will only allow imports to fill in the deficit or what we cannot produce locally.

Mr Dar is an Ilocano like me, and we Ilocanos always try to produce our own first, last.

Let us now pick up one of the 8 paradigms that give meaning to Mr Dar’s “The New Thinking for Agriculture” that he announced when Mr Duterte appointed him Secretary of Agriculture on 05 August 2019:

Modernization.

As an agriculturist myself, I can explain the need to import rice – as a farmer’s son I have observed that up to now Filipino farmers are using century-old methods such as not measuring distances of planting, and sticking 2 or more seedlings per hill, thus increasing plant competition for nutrients, thus decreasing yield.

You don’t need a Secretary of Agriculture
to discourage high yields in rice!

I am now going to blame UP Los Baños for not going into National Extension – not institutionally helping the DA in training farmers to get much more for the same amount of money and the same number of drops of perspiration.

When the Filipino farmers learn to be business-minded, they will increase their yields, increase their incomes, and widen Mr Dar’s smile.@517

 

You’re Afraid Your Mind Is Going… Going… Gone! Not If. I, Frank A Hilario, Almost Lost My Mind 55 Years Ago

Like KM, lately I noticed that quite a few of you people on Facebook are sharing fears, anxieties – Been there, done that!

You feel your mind is going, going, going… out!

More than half a century ago, in 1965 or 1966, I was a teacher in Asingan High School in Asingan, Pangasinan, my hometown. I had already finished my courses leading to a BS in Agriculture, major in Ag Education, at the University of the Philippines’ College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños.

I was happy teaching, but in fact, inside me I was ill-at-ease. I had difficulty sleeping at night. I was really troubled – every single time I saw a number, I would look at it as “13” or look for that number in any series of numbers. That was crazy! I know. It almost made me crazy.

How serious did my anxiety become? One afternoon, I was biking home with my teacher friend from the barrio next to ours, and then halfway, I felt so bad I had to stop and pleaded with him to accompany me back to the town proper of Asingan because I knew there was a doctor there who had some experience with psychiatry. Dr Vitug (I had forgotten the first name). When Dr Vitug saw me, he made me sit still and stare, just focus my eyes on one object at the top of the room. Then he asked me, “What are your thoughts right now?” And I said, “That I am dying, that I am going crazy.” He encouraged me to keep on talking, talking – which I did.

With my mind quieter, Dr Vitug gave me some tranquilizers, with the instruction to take one sleeping pill before sleeping. Guess what? I was thinking better now, so I told myself, I will postpone the taking of that pill until I can no longer stand it. And I did that every evening, postponing longer and longer my taking the pill – until I did not need any pill anymore to go to sleep.

Did you notice? In his clinic, Dr Vitug
made me confront the source of my fear!

The above image is from the article by Taboola, 11 March 2016, “5 Strategies for Confronting Fear[1],” Exploring Your Mind).

From another source, here is Robin Cartwright’s advice (23 September 2019, “5 Tips to Acknowledge, Confront, and Beat Your Fears[2],” Better Marketing):

1. Stop Dismissing It. You’re not abnormal or weak. You’re occasionally scared, that’s all.

2. Get Curious and Start Noticing It. For you it could be anything.

3. Put On Your Science Hat — Learn Why You Respond Like This.

4. Do Nothing Except Reflect, Calmly, in Those Fearful Moments.

5. Start to Confront Them.

I’m sorry I cannot explain some more. You will have to google for more information. To search, type this line (including quotes):

“confront the source of your fear”

That will give you many sources to learn from.
You owe it to yourself!@517

 

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[1]https://exploringyourmind.com/5-strategies-confronting-fear/

[2]https://medium.com/better-marketing/5-tips-to-acknowledge-confront-and-beat-your-fears-ef3be1bdd4fc

PH Agriculture Quandary – What Can We Do About Those Unmindful Farmers & Their Robot Leaders, Greedy Middlemen, Lazy Journalists, And Ignorant Lawmakers?

Filipino farmers keep on farming essentially the way they have been doing from 50 years ago – when I was still studying at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, UP Los Baños, for my BSA major in Ag Education. They have not learned much more.

So, Filipino farmers have the highest Asian cost of production of rice, P12/kilo; compared to Vietnam, P6/kilo. The Filipinos have the #1 agricultural university in Southeast Asia, UP Los Baños, but the Vietnamese must know something we Filipinos don’t! Sabi nga ni President Marcos, “Nakakahiya!” As President Marcos put it, “Ain’t that a shame!”

Average Filipino farmers have a high cost of rice production because they buy inputs borrowing from usurers. I know they also over-apply fertilizers and pesticides. Their rationale? “Just to make sure.” Mostly they practice calendared spraying and calendared fertilizing – it’s easier to remember. It’s not lack of science that is their problem – it’s ignoring limits to science;

Loudmouth farmer leaders keep on blaming the Rice Tariffication Law, RTL, or unscrupulous merchants, or imagined corruption at the Department of Agriculture, DA. Each one acts like a robot; that’s all that they do: Blaming;
(robot image[1] from fistful of talent)

Profit-minded merchants blame the market even if they know they are the market;

Lazy aggie journalists keep off the grass when it comes to investigating the ins-and-outs of farming, commerce and gross domestic prosperity. I know one reason: Journalists are not digital-minded, so the biggest open library in the world is closed to them;

And ignorant lawmakers keep blaming everything and everyone. (They forget that when you point your forefinger at someone, 3 fingers point at you.)
(ignorance image[2] from Random Vibez)

Ah, but I am a UP Los Baños-trained educator, stubborn journalist, hard-headed crusader, Internet-minded agriculturist, student of change, believer in “Small is beautiful” if treated right – and I persist.

You reader must know, if you didn’t, that:

Opinionated farmer leaders do not look at what farmers are doing but keep on looking for scapegoats, such as the RTL, or corruption at the National Food Authority, NFA, or corruption at the DA;

Slothful aggie journalists do not bother to understand the issues, get into the root of things, understand the science (or politics) behind whatever – too much trouble for them; and their editors don’t bother them about agriculture anyway;

Uninformed lawmakers keep on blaming the DA and/or rice importers, or the law that others made before them.

All of the above is my response to the emailed question of DA Senior Technical Adviser SRO:

In the play Camelot, there is a song (that) asks, "How to handle a woman?" and the answer is, "To love her, simply love her!"

How do we handle a farmer? How do we handle a trader? A consumer? How shall we love a woman, a farmer, a trader, a consumer? All together?

I shall listen.

To SRO, my answer is from Hamlet:

“I must be cruel, only to be kind.”@517

 

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[1]https://fistfuloftalent.com/category/robots
[2]https://www.therandomvibez.com/being-ignored-quotes-thanks-for-ignoring/