January - June 2008
With continuing grant assistance from Credit Suisse, Synergeia pursued the Reading Proficiency program for Manuel L. Quezon Elementary School (MLQES) in school year 2007-2008. The program, named by the community as the “Zero Non-Reader Program”, began two years ago with 850 Grade One pupils. On its third year, 700 Grade Three students and their teachers are directly benefiting from the program. Most of these pupils happen to be the same students who started with the program in school year 2005-2006 and are now reaping the fruits of sustained interventions to increase reading proficiency.
Three years into the program, there have been marked improvements in the way members of the school community, including parents and barangay leaders, view education. This in turn has led to better home-school collaboration and increased levels of performance of children in English. Not even the change in the school leadership, with the assumption into office of new principal Ms. Emir Velasco, hampered program implementation. Earlier, teachers and parents expressed misgivings about how the new principal would handle a program which was very much identified with its former school head, Ms. Marina Santos. But their fears were doused as soon as Ms. Velasco embraced the program, albeit not immediately. The new school head took time to see how the program has contributed to the performance of Grades One and Two children. The results of previous assessment tests and the evident support of teachers and parent-leaders convinced Ms. Velasco of the program’s efficacy.
1. Learning from Other Partners
Synergeia Retreat 2008 Participation
Every year, Synergeia provides all its partners and stakeholders a venue to learn from each other. It invites representatives from its partner-organizations to its Annual Retreat, which is essentially its answer to the traditional planning session. Here, partners assess their respective programs, share experiences, draw lessons, and produce best practices.
Teachers from MQES, led by its Grade 3 Chair Ms. Teresita de Austria, participated for the first time in the Synergeia Retreat.
Held last February 11-13, 2008, the theme for this year’s retreat was “The Complete Synergist”. It is a fitting description of the ever-growing family of Synergeia friends and partners - clearly a force that performs and assists in performing – through coaching and peer-teaching, empowering and self-modeling, collaboration and partnerships and advocacy and collective action. Such is the same spirit that moves the Education Governance program in the Manila sites.
About 130 participants were divided into smaller groups during the workshops, where they discussed lessons and best practices on: (1) engaging the community, (2) making meaningful data, and (3) telling our stories (advocacy).
The three issues in education which affect participants the most were: (1) the poor academic performance of children, (2) the lack of community involvement/ support for education, and (3) inadequacy of school infrastructure. Each partner shared his/ her experience in addressing these concerns.
Synergeia has been working since 2005 to come up with a standard reading assessment tool which can be used to gauge performance of students in Synergeia municipalities. It has created a report card system that not just looks at proficiency level of students, but teacher performance, parent involvement and Local School Board performance as well. The Synergeia report card was presented during the Retreat and below are suggestions made by participants to enhance the content, conduct and quality of the tool:
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Conduct informal reading inventory to assess students’ progress and evaluate degree by which students meet learning objectives (vis-à-vis yearly assessment only)
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Create a tool to facilitate collaboration and communication among faculty on matters of teaching and curriculum
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Use tables and graphs when presenting data on performance to parents
The evenings were spent for fellowship and games. Participants were divided according to regions and the Luzon group was the noisiest. They took the charades game to heart and were overjoyed to win the crown for Mr. and Ms. Synergeia 2008. The fellowship also revealed that many Synergeia partners were excellent dancers – and they were just unstoppable on the dance floor!
The team from MLQES found the retreat a most fulfilling experience. Lessons from other communities helped them appreciate the difficulties and the rewards of participatory governance in education, and inspired them to do better.
2. Enriching Learning in and out of the School
Village Reading Program
As part of the learning enrichment system of the Zero Non-Reader Program, Credit Suisse in partnership with Synergeia Foundation, Inc. and Museo Pambata conducted a Village Reading workshop for 200 teachers, parents and barangay leaders of MLQES last March 11, 2008.
The workshop was facilitated Mr. Jay Menes from Alitaptap Storytellers with Mr. Curtiss Lim and Ms. Charlotte Cachuela from the Museo Pambata. Mr. Ando Antolin, Mr. Dindo Guevara and Ms. Trissa Manalastas of Synergeia Foundation were also present to provide assistance and support.
The Village Reading Workshop started with an interactive discussion on the importance of 
reading and storytelling – how it stimulates the children’s imagination and widens their understanding; how it fosters attentive listening, thus improving their listening skills; how it aids comprehension and expands their vocabulary as new words are introduced; and how it serves to inculcate values.
Mr. Menes gave a demonstration of the different techniques in the art storytelling and provided a step-by-step guide on what to consider in organizing and conducting storytelling sessions in the community. The participants were briefed on the different factors to take into account in choosing the right story, tools which can make a good storyteller and how to organize a village reading session.
In addition, he drew attention to the need in engaging and interacting with children/students through questions to develop further their cognitive skills and be part of the cocreation process through personal realizations.
The participants were given opportunities to demonstrate the new skills and strategies they learned through a short story-telling session using Museo Pambata books. It was a joy to see parents tell stories with gusto and to see barangay kagawads creatively use varying voice intonations in narration. Teachers were impressed and remarked that they had not known there was such talent in the community!
To enrich the storytelling sessions, an arts and crafts workshop was conducted to show the participants how to prepare visual materials using simple art materials. They were shown how to make paper puppets, with just the use of colorful papers and craft paper bags, and each worked hands-on for their own puppets. Some school children also joined the arts and crafts workshop and their creativity stood out as they busied themselves in embellishing their creations.
From the feedback received, the participants greatly benefited from the workshops and are very pleased to have joined the endeavor. The experience was found to be enjoyable and it showed them how the storytelling exercise could be made more interesting and exciting for children. It also highlighted how village reading sessions could help strengthen home/school relationships.
3. Marks of Progress in Reading Proficiency
School Year-End Assessment Test
As in the past years, two tests were administered at the end of school year 2007-2008 to assess the progress of Grades One, Two and Three children in sight reading (decoding words) and in comprehension.
The site reading test or the DOLCH test is an internationally recognized test composed of more than 220 words. Each child is requested to read the words orally. His/ her reading level depends on the number of words read correctly. The test measures the capability of children to blend the sounds of the different consonants and vowels when reading a word.
The DOLCH test results showed that the program has significantly supported the capability of children to read. 9 out of 10 Grade 3 pupils are already reading at their appropriate reading level, compared to the 20% figure when they were in first grade. The program is also close to achieving its Zero Non-Reader goal – less than 10% of pupils (7% of pupils) are reading below par. This is quite a leap, considering that about 70% of these students could hardly read when they finished Grade One in SY 2004-2005.
Aside from the DOLCH test, an English Comprehension Test was administered to students. Reading comprehension is measured through a 30-item test composed of thinking exercises and stories. The questions are about simple recall and progress in difficulty. The children are asked to make inferences, generalize, interpret and perceive cause-and-effect relationships.
The mentioned test revealed that the children’s comprehension skills are quite high as well. On the average, grade 3 children obtained an average score of 57% in the comprehension test. This means they are able to answer 6 out of 10 questions on stories they read correctly. High achievers can answer 9 out of 10 comprehension questions correctly, while low performers can only answer 3 out of 10 questions correctly. This big disparity in scores could explain the dip in comprehension average scores from the previous year.
Analyzing the results, Principal Emir Velasquez surmised that the interventions made during the third year of the program helped high achievers do better (scores of high achievers rose by 2 percentage-points the following year) but did not support low performers in progressing to higher reading levels. She said grade three teachers, especially those handling the lower sections, need to work double-time in ensuring that children will not only develop good sight reading skills but also good comprehension skills by the end of the school year.
The year-end assessment test results celebrate the partnership of teachers, parents, the school administration officials of MLQES, Credit Suisse and Synergeia Foundation. The challenge for the community is to continue to strengthen critical thinking and comprehension skills of children and provide additional interventions (i.e. remedial reading) for 7% of its students who are still reading below par.
3. Sustaining Gains in Education Governance
Workshop with Barangay and School Officials
Teachers and parent-leaders were very inspired by the very positive results of the yearend assessment test. They agreed that these gains must be sustained and should be replicated to pupils in other grade levels. As this is a bigger task, Principal Velasquez expressed that they need to engage more members of the community to be part of the school’s education program.
Thus, in May 19, 2008, MLQES participated in a joint barangay-school workshop with Magat Salamat Elementary School1. The activity was an opportunity for parent-leaders and teacher-leaders from the two schools to interact and collaborate with officials from the 5 barangays within the school vicinity to develop a common vision and plan for education reforms in their community.
Synergeia invited one of its Education Champions, Barangay Captain Eduardo Tiongson of Poblacion North, Solano to share his barangay’s best practices in supporting school programs in Nueva Vizcaya. He shared that before, education was low on the priority of barangays. However, they were moved to action when Governor Rodolfo Agbayani held a province-wide summit and reported that graduating elementary students scored 38 percent in the National Achievement Test2. Kap Ed stressed that barangays play a critical role in supporting learning in schools.
Under the Local Government Code, barangays are entrusted to implement and manage the day-care program. This was the entry-point used by Barangay Solano in its education reform program. The barangay provided funding for training day-care workers while the provincial government provided each child with a work-textbook. The barangay also invested in improvements for its Barangay Hall, providing space not only for the Day Care school but a resource/computer center open to students for research and study sessions. These books and computers were donated to the barangay by local NGOs and Rotary Clubs.
To maximize their available resources, the barangay also offered free computer classes to teachers, students and interested parents. Another innovation to promote education is the recognition day for graduates from the pre-school, elementary, high school and college levels. Every year, the barangay hosts a dinner for fresh graduates and award medals as a reminder of their service, being role models, and an inspiration to other young people in the barangay. This activity was also able to bring together officials from opposing political parties – “sa edukasyon, walang parti-partido”.
After a brief open forum, barangay officials sat with teacher and parent-leaders from MLQES to 
discuss what inspired them from Kap Ed’s presentation and how they can mobilize the community to support not just the Zero Non-Reader program but other education programs in the barangay.
Ms. Velasquez pointed out that she was struck by the phrase “family-friendly barangay” as this encompasses what barangays should be – a community where families thrive in harmony, where children are educated and healthy, and where constituents are empowered to participate in its development.
She shared that before she was assigned to Tondo, she had some misgivings about the support of parents and the security in the area. But after a school year, she came to know that these fears were unfounded – barangays in Tondo, at least those surrounding MLQES, were very peaceful communities.
Based on her experience, it was not difficult to call parents to the school or invite barangay officials to school activities. Ms. Velasquez believes that the bayanihan spirit could easily be revived in Tondo if barangay officials would work together and actively engage parents and school officials. Others in the group echoed the sentiment of Ms. Velasquez.
Consequently, the parents and barangay officials suggested programs on how they can make the barangay be an active player in education governance:
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Conduct meetings with parents to know better their barangay officials
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Develop concrete programs aside from day-care centres to promote education in the community such as:
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Strengthen the day-care program
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Work actively and closely with the school to reduce the number of dropouts in the community:
School and barangay officials also dialogued on how they can mobilize greater community participation in programs for education. The following were their must-dos:
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Develop and implement a public information program where the community can learn what programs are being undertaken by the school and the barangay to improve learning of children.
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Conduct regular barangay assemblies wherein issues and programs in education (including nutrition) are discussed.
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Conduct an orientation for parents and guardians at the start of the school year.
- For the school-barangay task force to become a model of unity in the community.
At the end of the workshop, the barangay kagawads, parent-leaders, teacher-leaders and Principal Emir Velasquez expressed their gratitude to Credit Suisse for allowing them to come together and learn from each other. They remain committed in enabling children of Tondo become good readers and “the best students in Manila”.
4. Moving Forward
The program is going on its fourth year of implementation in June 2008. Strengthening barangay relations and mobilizing parents were identified as core programs to be prioritized for the year. Synergeia will provide support in organizing parent-support groups per grade level and in building up the capabilities of barangays to take the lead in promoting education reforms. An education summit will be organized and hosted jointly by MLQES and its two partner-barangays to report to parents the achievements of the Zero Non-Reader program as well as plans to sustain it.
As of this writing, Synergeia is in the process of identifying another elementary school in Manila for Credit Suisse support. Initially, a proposal was made for a reading proficiency program in Vicente N. Lim Elementary School3 in Barangay Isla Puting Bato. However, Synergeia later learned that the community is not prepared to do an education governance program (due to its situation of extreme poverty). Former MLQES Principal Ms. Marina Santos, will help Synergeia identify another needy but willing and committed elementary school to undergo the program.
MLQES Principal Ms. Emir Velasquez with teachers, Synergeia staff and partners from Museo Pambata.
