Synergeia held a planning workshop with Mayor Agnes
Dycoco and her Project management Team composed of LGU staff, DepEd
supervisors, principals of various schools and Grade 1 teacher
representatives on August 20, 2008.

The participants identified various problems in education such as the lack
of instructional materials, the lack of pre-school education, the quality
of teachers, large multi-grade classes, and the lack of parental support.
They then drafted a work program consisting of a series of assessment
tests for teachers and pupils, the distribution of workbooks, a parents'
capability building workshop, and the development of a mobile
library/reading center to be managed by baranggay officials.

Initially it was proposed that education program's goal should be to
increase the children's scores by 10 percentage points every year, using 56
percent, (NATscore 2007) as the baseline. However, some were concerned that
increasing test scores by 10 percentage points was too much too soon. It was
then proposed that the goal for the first two years should be an increase of
5 points percentage points. On the third year the goal
should be an increase of 9 percentage  points, bringing the scores up to 75
percent. Then on the fourth and fifth years, the goal should be to increase
the average test scores to at least 80 percent.

The participants pledged their highest degree of commitment to the
education program and affirmed their belief in the value of education.
They believe that education is the only way out of poverty, it is an
empowering tool, and it is an instrument of change in all aspects of life.