It was, as one mayor put it, “the only good news in Metro Manila that day.”

 

As the nation’s president continued to battle serious charges of electoral fraud while the widow of her fiercest rival in the last presidential elections called for her immediate resignation, more than 30 local chief executives from all over the country gathered together to demonstrate their commitment to give utmost priority to the education of their young by building learning communities.

 

 Two governors and 29 mayors, and some 15 barangay chairmen from as far as Tuao in Cagayan and the Camp Abubakar municipality of Barira in Maguindanao, together with Cong. Rodolfo Agbayani of Nueva Vizcaya, signed the 1^st National Covenant on Building a Learning Community with Education Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad last June 29 at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati City. 

 

In signing the covenant, the local chiefs pledged to assume greater responsibility and accountability for basic education in their respective communities, and, jointly with the Department of Education (DepEd), collaborate with other community members in ensuring that every child completes at least a good elementary education.  The local chiefs are guided by the belief that the way to progress is for every child in the community to complete quality basic education and the LGU must take the lead in making this happen.

 

The covenant-signing is a milestone in a series of efforts by the DepEd, in collaboration with Synergeia Foundation, Inc. to improve the quality of basic education by empowering the LGUs and mobilizing cooperation among stakeholders.  Based on its fundamental philosophy that it takes a village to raise child, Synergeia has pioneered the model of collaborative partnership among the DepEd, the LGUs, the schools, teachers, parents and other members the community to institutionalize education governance. 

 

 

To build learning communities, local chief executives committed to allocate more local resources for education and mobilize stronger community participation in the Local School Boards (LSBs).  They also agreed to promulgate any ordinance that institutionalizes reforms for improving governance in education.

 

Together with DepEd local schools division offices, LGU chiefs promised to develop and implement a “report card system” through which the performance of the LSBs, the schools and community members involved in education will be measured in terms of improved academic performance of children, parents’ involvement in school activities, transparency of LSB records, and the efficient collection and allocation of the Special Education Fund tax.

 

The local schools division offices, for their part, also vowed to practice transparency in revealing sources of school funds, sharing education statistics, and in hiring and promoting teachers.  They likewise committed to opening a “parent’s desk” in every school, through which parents can assist the schools and the teachers in maintaining peace and order, cleanliness, and in coordinating after-school activities. 

 

The DepEd Central Office has also pledged to devolve to local governments the construction of school buildings.

 

 

Addressing the signatories, Secretary Abad said, “It is time communities become involved in the education of their young.”  He said “those who have the most at stake for their children’s education must play a direct role.  They are also in the best position to know what their schools need to perform better.” 

 

Dr. Milwida Guevara, Synergeia President and Chief Executive Officer, echoed this sentiment, saying, “It is really impossible for the central government to address the problems of education that is why our mission is to really make the local government and the community accept the responsibility of basic education as one of their primary duties.”

 

Abad has been advocating for education governance through decentralization since he assumed the leadership of DepEd in September 2004.  Through DepEd’s reform initiative called “Schools First”, school governing councils or SGCs are being organized in communities to develop and implement school improvement plans for each public school.

 

The covenant aims to support this initiative by “reinventing” LSBs, organizing parents’ groups and enlisting the support of barangays.

 

 

The gathering was also an occasion for sharing best practices in local education governance from which LGUs were able to draw lessons. It is noteworthy to mention that the local chiefs welcomed the opportunity to learn from the success of fellow local leaders recognized as role-models.  Two such leaders who have received numerous national and international honors for excellence in local governance gave their peers a glimpse of their initiatives that have directly resulted in the improved state of education in their respective constituencies.

  

 

Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo provided a first-hand account of how a reformed LSB can make a significant dent in improving the state of basic education.  The Naga City experience is now being touted as the model for reinventing LSBs. 

 

“The Local School Board is the most logical vehicle for local education reform owing to its legal mandate under the Local Government Code,” said Robredo.

 

The mobilization of parents in education reforms, introduced in Bulacan by Governor Josefina dela Cruz, is another innovation that has substantially contributed to better pupil performance. The parents are organized in a group called Samahan ng mga Magulang para sa Kabutihan at Kaunlaran or SAMAKKA through which closer coordination between parents and teachers has been developed.

 

Governor dela Cruz reported further that, through SAMAKKA, almost 250,000 parents in their province were made to realize that they are part of the learning process. 

 

“As a result, most of our parents tutor their kids for at least 30 minutes a day,” the governor said.

 

Reinforcing this practice is the presence of parents’ desks in every elementary school in Bulacan, where parents interact and where they tutor the kids of fellow parents who may not have the capability to do so. 

 

 

The presence of individuals and organizations from various sectors of society during the covenant-signing was a strong signal of the growing convergence for local governance in education.

 

Lending their support to the activity were other DeEd top officials, including Undersecretaries Fe Hildalgo and Miguel Luz, and schools division superintendents, representatives from the international donor community, private academic institutions, non-government organizations and the business community.  Among the business groups present was Union of Oil California (UNOCAL)-Philippines, an energy company that is funding a Reading Proficiency Program for the municipality of Tiwi, Albay.  The covenant-signing coincided with the launching of the Tiwi-UNOCAL-Synergeia partnership to improve the reading proficiency of Grade One students in the municipality of Tiwi.