The recent Barangay Elections proved to be a timely event before the Education Summit in Guimbal as it brought fresh faces into the forefront of educational reform in this Iloilo municipality. A newly-elected barangay captain vowed to allocate resources from the barangay fund to help address identified problems faced by schools in his territory.

The development came about in light of a presentation by Mayor Christian Garin showing the state of Guimbal’s basic education based on recorded performance indicators. She challenged barangay officials, the PTA officers and the student government to help the Department of Education (DepEd) and the local government to come up with a collective agenda to help curb the unstable performance rates.

“Education is a key to success but finding the right ingredient to achieving the quality of basic education is not a simple endeavor,” says Mayor Garin

Representatives from different sectors offered their commitment to the cause and shared ideas to better improve the current dismal state of education in Guimbal. A student leader proposed a peer-mentoring program for slow and non-readers in every school. A PTA delegate brought up the conduct of parenting seminars as a way to inform parents of their critical role. A local government unit (LGU) official committed to an efficient tax collection system in order to raise more revenue for the Special Educatio Fund.

Mayor Garin welcomed the enthusiasm but offered a word of caution to the participants. “Education is a key to success but finding the right ingredient to achieving the quality of basic education is not a simple endeavor,” she said.

A total of 140 people, comprising parents, teachers, School Heads, DepEd, LGU Department Heads, school board members, NGOs, and elementary and high school student representatives joined the summit on November 22, 2013.

(By Ruth Santos with report from Edwin Nacionales)

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Active commitment, participation and preparation of the Project Management Team (PMT) served as one the crucial foundations for the success of the recently concluded first Miagao Educational Summit this month. Miagao Mayor Mac Napulan formed the PMT and with Synergeia assistance provided them the necessary training to strengthen the education coalition of Miagao.

In his opening address, Councilor Patricio Fio reiterated the municipality’s vision and mission to improve the quality of its basic education. He said that enhancing the educational performance of the school children is one of the main goals of the current administration.
The training held on Nov. 14, 2013 was designed to help the PMT members develop confidence and skills required in group facilitation prior to the education summit. Workshops comprised of exercises and simulations that focused on lessons from consultative, proactive and collaborative activities that they would, in turn, impart to summit participants.

“All of them were extremely participative and very active. Besides exercising their basic skills in listening and analyzing, the most important thing was the building of teamwork and camaraderie among them,” Synergeia Program Officer observed.
The PMT is composed of teachers, principals, PTA members and business sector representatives headed by Coun. Fio and Education Consultant Evangelina Intal in cooperation with Synergeia.

(By Ruth Santos with report from Edwin Nacionales)

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Values formation should be emphasized in schools apart from the quality of knowledge imparted to children. This was stressed by Municipal Mayor Abraham Gutierrez in his address during Padre Garcia’s 2nd Education Summit in Batangas on Oct. 12, 2013. The mayor said several of his programs are already dedicated to this cause citing a campaign to revive the use of “po” and “opo” in addressing elders. He then encouraged everyone to help those in need according to his own capacity. “Ang tutugon po sa mga problema ay hindi lang si Mayor at si Vice Mayor o ang Synergeia, kundi ang buong komunidad,” he reminded.

Vice Mayor Noel Cantos then reported that cohort survival improved as 87% of students were able to finish 6th grade. However, he expressed alarm at the dwindling number of children going to school. From 66% in 2008-2009, the percentage of children in school fell to 63.47%. He also noted that NAT scores have gone down from 82.3% to 62.3% since school year 2010-2011.

Participants were asked to cooperate in order to identify the root causes of these problems. “Kahit ano pong pagpilit naming ang aming sarili sa inyo, kung wala po ang inyong kooperasyon, wala pong mangyayari,” the Vice Mayor said. He then asked for their commitment to come up with workable solutions.

Educators, parents and delegates from the local government unit, that comprises the local school board, each listed their dreams for their children, the factors that hinder those dreams, and possible action plans to ensure that their dreams are achieved. The common goal was clear – for children to finish school so that they will have a brighter future.

Results from the summit will be used in drafting an effective educational program suited to the needs of Padre Garcia’s elementary school children. Four separate trainings will be held for the benefit of the local school board, principals, teachers and parents, respectively, to be similarly facilitated by Synergeia under the EdGe Program funded by USAID.

The summit was attended by delegates from Clusters 2 & 3 consisting of 13 Elementary Schools in Padre Garcia, Batangas.

(By Ruth Santos with reports from Bernard Borromeo and Miguel Serapio)

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