THE MARIKINA City government welcomed the offer of a religious group to use its young professional members as learning support aides to help parents and teachers in distance learning.

Mayor Marcelino ‘Marcy’ Teodoro on Wednesday accepted the offer of the officials of the Marikina Valley Ministerial Fellowship, a group of born-again Christian pastors with 100 member churches in Marikina.

Teodoro explained that the local government is planning to hire para-teachers to support parents and students.

“The para-teachers will guide parents and students and provide assistance to teachers. They will also help monitor and track the progress of students in their community,” the mayor said.

“We are very grateful to MARVAL for volunteering to help the city government in addressing challenges in the new normal setup of education in the country,” he added.

Teodoro instructed the young professionals who want to volunteer as para-teachers to coordinate with the Department of Education-Marikina ‘for a faster implementation of the program’.

DepEd personnel will train the young professionals, the mayor said.

Pastor Frances Talattad of The Rhema Word of God Church said the group offered its support to the city government after learning about the struggles faced by parents and students when it comes to their modules.

“Among the challenges faced by parents under the new normal in the education system amid the pandemic is how to teach the learning modules provided by the DepEd to their children. Most of them cannot teach the lessons of their children due to their educational attainment,” she said.

“Ang concerns namin,basically, is ang education. Nahihirapan ang mga nanay sa pagtuturo ng module sa kanilang mga anak. Dahil hindi alam ng parents kung paano ituturo, hindi rin nila maasikaso, walang magtuturo sa mga anak,” she added.

Talattad said some parents pay others to answer the modules of their children as they themselves have no capability.

“Iyon namang mga anak na may pera ang mga magulang, ipinapasagot sa iba ang kanilang module. Nagbabayad ng P50 bawat module. So hindi rin sila natututo, na di-defeat ang purpose,” she said.

“Kaya nung nalaman ko na mayroon palang programa si Mayor Marcy doon sa para-teachers, natuwa kami kasi sa church namin mayroon kaming young professionals na karamihan work from home. So pwede silang magkaroon ng time na magvolunteer na turuan ang mga bata,” she added.