USec Lino to School Heads: Make Simpler SIPs to Get Things Done

Principals are encouraged to come up with simpler School Improvement Plans that can effectively address problems in their own schools. Department of Education Undersecretary Lino Rivera made the appeal during Synergeia’s School Governance Workshop in January.

“We don’t want to see voluminous documents on our shelves but are never applied. The important thing is to get things done,” Usec Lino said. He emphasized the ultimate focus of DepEd’s new mission on vision. “The start and end of our work is for the children. Everything else is secondary.”

“The start and end of our work is for the children.
Everything else is secondary.” – Usec Lino

Speaking before principals and OICs from over 100 schools in CAMANAVA and Pili, Camarines Sur, the DepEd official noted that SIPs, which a school is tasked to formulate on a regular basis, usually either remain unapplied or produce ineffective results.

“Make a simple one with your stakeholders,” the DepEd official recommends. “I think yan ang ginagawa ng Synergeia.”

He urges all school heads to remember their primary role as far as decision-making is concerned. “Our commitment is to the student and to help our students we have to help our teachers. Anything extra should be out.”

Doing away with the 3 T’s: Tanggap, Tiklop, Tago

The DepEd official’s call compliments an appeal by Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, former president of Ateneo De Manila University.  In the same forum, he said principals should strategize to accommodate both top and bottom students. As an example, he cited that training teachers for remedial classes in English and those for creative writing for top students are very different.

“Every school is different and unique.” – Fr. Nebres

He added that teachers’ trainings should not comprise impractical methods that would only encourage the 3 T’s, Tangap, Tiklop, Tago (Receive, Fold, Store away), referring to various trainings that involve complicated techniques that only end up gathering dust on file.  “Don’t bother with this kind of training,” he said. “Every school is different and unique. Understand your own school and know how to work,” he added.

The workshop is one of a series of trainings initiated by Synergeia Foundation under USAID’s Education Governance Effectiveness (EdGE) program that aims to improve children’s learning outcomes and participation through effective governance.