JAGNA, Bohol – Dynamic Learning Program goes viral. This came as some 400 public and private schools in the country are considering to embrace the DLP this year, an innovative teaching framework introduced by Dr. Christopher C. Bernido and his wife Dr. Victoria Carpio-Bernido of the Central Visayas Institute Foundation (CVIF) of this town. Some 200 of these (schools) have already embraced the said innovative method to improve academic performance all over the country, including this province, about three years ago. Part of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), some towns of Negros Oriental and private schools such as the University of the East, Claret School in Zamboanga City and the entire division of Cagayan de Oro City have already implemented the program in previous school-year, reports said.

The said program is also promoted with the help of Smart Communications Inc. (Smart) and the PLDT-Smart Foundation (PSF), as campaigner, and being continued so during the recent 4th workshop on CVIF-DLP last April at De La Salle University in Manila, wherein more than 400 delegates of 130 schools participated in the activity. “We are proud to be partners with the Bernidos in helping enhance the quality of Philippine education. Molding our young people academically with the global jobs market-place,” said Smart Public Affairs group head Ramon Isberto. There’s “a crying need for solutions to clear and present problems” and “a need for new pedagogical perspective given the global realities.” And these realities include: (a) a new generation of learners whose brains are wired differently; (b) information now readily accessible to learners; (c) new results from neuro-science; (d) an emerging worldwide lack of qualified teachers in STEM discipline and (e) political pressures of international assessments, Bernido said in a “Speakers Bureau” forum sponsored by Department of Science and Technology (DOST). STEM refers to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Bernido, together with his wife, who are both Magsaysay Awardee, has introduced DLP first in CVIF that is now working favorably since its implementation in 2002. He said under such method, the students are given about 70-80% of the time allotted to work independently for them to develop their creativity while remaining 30% for the teachers’ lecture class, as against the common practice of more time for teachers and less for students, he said. There is no academic class during Wednesdays. Through DLP, CVIF produced nine (9) students who got 99+% and another eight (8) with 99% percentile rank in the DepEd sponsored National Career Assessment Examination math exams in 2010. In 2001, the school produce only one out of 66 students in NSAT math exam. But it has improved in 2007 of NCAE math exam when it produced 13 out of 166; 21 out of 115 students in 2009; and 54 (51%) out of 106 students in 2010.

Three students of the school who took the NCAE scored 99+%; another three (3) got 99% and another four (4) with 98%. Forty-five (45.3%) percent of CVIF seniors belong to top 10 percent nationwide and 48 students out of 106 seniors scored 90% and above. The school, according to Bernido, had progressed in terms of passers of the University of Philippine College Admission Test (UPCAT) by 10% since the DLP began. Three passed the UPCAT in 2003-2004 and increased to 11 passers in 2010-2011. With appropriate technology and strategy, students can learn physics effectively “even if their teachers have little or no background on physics,” Bernido said. DLP has been piloted in some schools in Mindanao and Visayas in elementary level, he said. (RVO)