This article is part of the Undisrupted series, a series of articles detailing our Troop's response to the current COVID-19 situation, allowing training to continue even when physical CCA sessions have been postponed showing that our Troop is truly prepared and unwavered even in the face of the pandemic.
By Lucas Loh
Updated: 25 December 2021
Today marks the first E-Jihe conducted between Ventures as we launched the Training Continuity Plan (TCP) 2020 to prepare our Troop for the worst-case scenarios of the current COVID-19 situation. While many Troops and other CCAs have decided to allow this virus to determine their ability to train, at Catholic High we choose not to be environmentally-deterministic, but self-deterministic, ensuring training continues even if most of them needs to be done at home.
The Premier Training Method
Any Troop and any institution can conduct the standard Home-Based Learning (HBL) model of giving Scouts notes and then quizzing them. However, even as strenuous as it can be to gather all these online resources and set all these quizzes, this is the baseline, the bare minimum of our TCP Plan. The HBL model is an old and outdated model that has been used since SARS 2003 and is not effective enough to train Scouts as it can only cover theory, turning our Scouts into paper Scouts, only able to talk and respond in theory, but not do and respond in practice.
Nevertheless, this may be useful in theory-based subjects such as first aid, which is why just 24 hours after the suspension of CCA activities were announced, the Troop uploaded about 3 hours worth of first aid content and quizzes to be assigned to the Scouts for their self-study through the Student Learning Space (SLS). This HBL model is our safety net, and through careful planning and amassing of resources, we have managed to respond the swiftest.
This distinction between our TCP model and the HBL model is the distinction between our premier Catholic High Training Method and other Troops. Through the short 3 hour E-Jihe session, the Ventures came up with 8 E-Modules, worth about 2 months of training, with highly engaging activities such as a Patrol Knots Chart Challenge, which is a challenge for the Patrols to collectively make a knots chart without coming together, testing the skills of the Patrol and the leadership of the PL to delegate tasks to his men.
By focusing on learning by doing, the Scouts will be self-directed in their growth while being remotely monitored and guided by their Ventures and PLs. For example, one of the E-Modules was the floorplan sketching activity where Scouts have to sketch a floorplan of their house. This activity allows the Scout to practise map sketching in a smaller and more detailed context, and the Ventures are able to guide the Scouts by giving them advice and feedback on their sketches remotely.
Our Venture Motto: 深谋远虑, Look Wide
Such a rapid response to COVID-19 is only possible through weeks of planning, and that is the essence of scouting, to be prepared. Our Venture Motto calls upon us to look wide, to have strategic foresight so as to build strength for the Troop. In actuality, it did not just take weeks of planning and work but months and years as our fast response time can also be credited to our strong Troop digital database on all softcopy resources, question banks and quizzes, allowing us to have easy access to all these resources when we need them. Just like a strong QM is required for elite training, so is a strong Database required for top-notch training in the current COVID-19 situation.
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