The School Governing Councils (SGCs) of Cabatuan, Iloilo have steadily moved forward in organizing their communities to help children and their schools. The SGCs recently underwent the 3rd level of School Governing Council (SGC) training yielding good results! Synergeia mentor, former Mayor Diding Gamboa shared that real power resides in all of us and that we all have the capacity to make change.
Cabatuan Mayor Ronilo Caspe proudly shared the fruits of Cabatuan’s partnership with Synergeia, saying that “the municipality of Cabatuan has an independent and an expanded school board. It is will not be a difficult journey if all of the stakeholders collaborate.”
The participants shared how the SGC made an impact on their community. Some of them saw the SGCs as doers. Others saw them as great communicators. A participant shared that their SGC members consistently disseminated information about their activities and projects. Another participant shared that the SGC was also generous with its financial assistance. The SGC of Cabatuan Central Elementary school remarked that all the sectors are represented in their SGC. Another school is happy because responsibilities of members are clearly defined to help everyone perform well. Many of the participants expressed satisfaction about their SGCs’ performance especially about the growing attention that barangays give to school.
While Cabatuan has many successes to be proud of, they still have many concerns. For example, one participant shared that the road which children take to go to school is still in a poor state. An unpaved road hinders many kids from going to school. The others felt that attendance is still a problem.
Level 3 SGC training develops the capacity of the participants to think of the results of their work in terms of outcomes instead of inputs and outputs. Mayor Diding emphasized that SGC activities are only meaningful if they improve achievement of children and enable children to finish their schooling. The participants were encouraged to translate their goals into tasks and to draw up action plans.
At the end of the day, Mayor Diding reminded the participants that everyone must be heroes for the children. “There is power that resides in everyone.”
