Elementary school principals in Mindanao’s Sulu province are gearing up to enhance basic education in their schools through training on leadership and professional teacher development, especially in English, Science, and Math.
More than 100 principals from Jolo, Siasi, and Patikul recently attended “BUILDING THE NATION BY BUILDING MY SCHOOL: A Workshop for the Leaders of the Building Process” organized by Synergeia Foundation under the Education Quality and Access for Learning and Livelihood Skills (EQuALLS2) Project of the Department of Education (DepED) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The activity, held on July 11-13, 2010, targeted principals from three Sulu schools that have shown very poor ratings in the National Achievement Test in past years.
During the seminar, Synergeia Foundation President and CEO Dr. Milwida Guevara underscored the principal’s role as the prime mover in improving the quality of education in his or her school.
Pilar Agraviador, principal of the Ateneo de Zamboanga University, said principals must have a clear vision, be able to communicate it well with teachers and students, inspire them to achieve it, and must set a model to teachers of willingness to be evaluated and to learn from mistakes.
“When you care about others, when you reach out to others, when you give yourself to help others – you make a difference,” Agraviador told the principal-attendees during the seminar.
EQuALLS2 Education Specialist Ina Aquino stressed the importance of school-based professional teacher development.
“Professional teacher development is needed because teachers do not have the same level of competencies and skills. Some need more details and more in-depth, iterative, regular, and sustained coaching,” Aquino said.
EQuALLS2 has completed with DepED the development and production of a guide to school-based professional teacher development.
The training workshop also provided the principals assessment tools to enable them to track both teacher and student performance. These tools included the Rubric, self-assessment, standardized test, peer assessment, formative test, summative test, anecdotal record, checklist, literacy log, oral fluency, observation, and oral reading assessment.
The EQuALLS2 Project is assisting DepED in improving student outcomes through teacher and school administrator training, community engagement, and offering of alternative basic education and livelihood skills training for out-of-school children and youth in partnership with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
