LAC: My Response to NEAP Central Office

Taken during District Turn-over Ceremony April 27, 2007

As I unplugged my Samsung Galaxy Duos because of brownout mode, mobile messages below appeared in my screen. It entered my gadget at around 2:15 pm, April 12, 2015.

“Hi Samoore. This is Cash from NEAP Central Office. You were referred to me by Asec Noor. May we ask how is LAC being implemented in Sulu po? Thank you.”

Me: Learning Action Cell, you mean, Sir? Just now unplugging my cp. Smart ka pala kaya di me makarepz!

Sir Cash: Yes po. Ito po globe ko. . .

Me: I will post in the form of narrative later in our FB group, DOC or in my blogsite: indanansouth.blogspost.com. You may add Indanan South, my FB profile name so that I can add you, too.

I addressed Cash, Sir. Surely, he is. . . male because he’s no comment on my address.

My Personal Experiences on LAC - wayback '90s, I remembered Sir Siladjan J. Jamiri, retired District Supervisor of Indanan South District but he was just a Principal of Panglima Indanan Central School that time and I was one of his Teachers assigned Class Adviser of Grade VI – B for 15 years. Every last Friday of the month, we had SLAC (School Learning Action Cell). Some teachers and school administrators titled it IN-SET stands for In-Service Training. There was also the so-called DSLAC (District School Learning Action Cell).

How SLAC Conducted

Commonly, it was a half-day session done in the school every last Friday of the month. The principal/school head discussed to teachers the following topics:

• DepED Order/memo
• Division/district memorandum
• School policy
• Teachers development
• Effectiveness of teaching-learning process. 

Afterwards, the head of the school composed a narrative report on the observance of the school IN-SET. It was submitted to the office of the District Supervisor.

How DSLAC Observed

It's a districtwide gathering of teachers and school managers inclining to identical focus and concentration of SLAC. It was observed once a year in the district level. Usually, it falled on October during semestral break. 3-day observance of DSLAC happened many times. Almost all the school administrators were given topics for the learning session specifically on the following areas of concentration:

• Teaching strategies, approaches and methods
• Grading system
• DepED order/memo
• District policy
• DepED forms
• Monthly and year-end reports
• Duties and responsibilities
• Teaching demonstration

Likewise, the district supervisor was required to submit narrative report on IN-SET by the division office. I was the one assigned by my Principal In-Charge of the District to prepare it then he counterchecked it for final encoding and submission. There was a given format for that report issued by the division office. District Supervisor and school heads had to submit that kind of report because it was stipulated in the clearance every end of the school year.

However, narrative report on IN-SET is no longer a requirement of the division office nowadays. If I remember right, it's almost a half decade that clearance for the school head/district head failed to contain the submission of SLAC/DSLAC narrative.

Despite the non-submission of the narrative report on IN-SET, every school in Indanan South District still continues observing SLAC and the district as well. Last 2013, the DIC managed to have consultative meeting with 11 school heads concerning the consequential effects of the SLAC/DSLAC on the priorities of the schools and district. We finally agreed to have specific name of the DSLAC without changing its purposes and scope. For the district, it is named DLF (District Learning Forum) while the schools are free to attribute their SLAC programs depending upon the agreement with the teachers in their respective schools. Specification of name for SLAC/DSLAC aims to create innovation on the observance of the activity.

One of the innovations of the District In-Charge is the introduction of the monthly DLF among school administrators. It is observed every third Thursday of the month.