Through the USAID’s Hugpong program, we held the first Marawi Children Art Exhibit last December 11, 2019 at the Social Hall of the Provincial Capitol Building. We exhibited the art works of children from the healing and art workshops held over the past year.
The children created art to express what is in their hearts. It helped in their journey towards healing. They drew about their longing for peace, their love for country and for their family, their dreams, their favorite things. It was now time to open their hearts and share their drawings with their teachers, their parents, their friends. The hall became festive as beautiful, colourful drawings of children were pasted on dividers, clipped on makeshift easels, hanged on strings and spread on tables all around the hall.
The occasion was graced by the Lanao Vice Governor, the Board Member and Head of the Education Committee of the Provincial Sanggunian, the DepEd Superintendent and her Assistant Superintendent who cut the ribbon to open the exhibit. The guests went around the hall to view the art works, including children who looked for the drawings of their classmates.
Select students explained their drawings in front of the audience. The student from Caloocan ES said “Nakikiisa ako sa paggawa ng kapayapaan, paggalang sa kapwa tao at pagsunod sa batas.” The student from Amai Pakpak said “Ang turo sa Islam ay magmahalan at magkaisa. Hindi tayo dapat mawalan ng pag-asa. Tayo ay babangon, parang magkapamilya.” Peace and hope – – this was a recurring theme of their drawings, a common longing in the hearts of Marawi children.
We are deeply encouraged by the eagerness of communities to participate in improving the education of their children. They look forward to learn more about the SGC and come to the SGC workshops with enthusiasm and hope.
In this quarter, 11 SGC workshops were held in Balindong, Bubong, Buluan, Ditsa-anRamain, Mamasapano, Mangudadatu, Marantao, Masiu, Matanog, Omar and Tamparan, and these were participated in by more than 1,000 school heads, parents and barangay officials. The workshops followed a structure, with the first part being a discussion of the state of education of children in the municipality. The SGC members were often shocked to be presented with data showing how poorly the children have scored in national achievement tests or the many number of children who are struggling to read. This would drive them to do their part in finding solutions.
They would then be given an orientation on the role and functions of the SGC, the difference between the SGC and the parents-teachers association, how to organize functional SGCs, how to map the community to get good and dedicated people to be SGC members, how to call a meeting and formulate an agenda, and how to build teamwork. They learned about the School Improvement Plan (SIP) and how they could participate in crafting the SIP together with the school head. They learned that in more advanced LGUs, the SGC is invited to discuss and elevate school concerns to the Local School Board and this made them more excited at the things the SGC can do for the welfare of children.
SGC Assessment. We asked the SGCs to fill up the assessment form to gauge how they are in the organization of their SGCs. Most of the SGCs scored 0-1 which meant that they are still starting to organize a functional SGC while Balindong scored a 2.68 which meant “malapit na maging good”or getting to be a functional SGC.
Table 4. SGC Performance
We used an assessment tool developed by Synergeia that looks at the attributes of a functional SGC.
The scores are computed using a 4-point rating scale:
SGC Action Plans. An important part of the SGC workshops is learning the process of preparing an action plan. To move them away from stating their plans into motherhood statements, the SGCs were helped to translate their first goals into tasks and to state them into inputs, outputs and outcomes. To make their plans operational, they were introduced into a simple RACI Matrix . They had a task analysis and identified persons who were to execute each tasks and within a timeline. They were taught the simple rudiments of budgeting. Then, they were asked to prepare their own simple SGC action plans. S ince almost all of them did not have functional SGCs, the first action plan that they did was about organizing their own SGCs. The second action plan was about implementing a simple project for the school children. Two examples of simple action plans from 2 SGCs in Bubong and DitsaanRamain, Lanaodel Sur are shown herein. They are simple plans on conducting a summer reading class and conducting a homeroom values education session.
The SGCs have drawn 175 action plans. Our program officers will be monitoring the progress of the SGCs in implementing these action plans. We will also help the SGCs in refining and costing their SGC plans.
At the conclusion of the SGC workshops, the participants wrote about their learnings and take-aways from the workshops. We sincerely believe they are off to a good start.
Nalaman kong kailangan palang kasama ang komunidad sa pagpaplano ng pagpapa-unlad ng paaralan; The importance of having an SGC and how can it help the school and the community.
Proper ways of conducting election forSGC.
Naging malinaw sa akin ang ibig sabihin ng kahulugan ng SGC sa aming paaralan. Kaagad kong maisakatuparan ito sa aming school (The SGC has become clear to me. We will organize it soon.)
We are motivated more to do our best in our duties.
Pinaka-natutunan ko ay ang pagkakaiba ng SGC at PTCA. (Difference between the SGC and PTCA)
Cooperation of the LGU/BLGU is very important to the success of the school.
SGC is a sharing of vision
Ang natutunan at babaunin ko ay ang pag-buo ng SGC at ang target nito ay learners’ performance. I-aaply ko ang natutunan ko sa training na ito.- Disalamun D. (Organizing SGCand targeting learners’performance)
Capacity Building of Local School Boards. The transformation of Local School Boards is at the core of Synergeia’s programs. Following the Robredo model, LSBs should model participatory, effective, and empowering governance in education. We have embarked on building their capacities to be inclusive and strategic in planning and to move their plans intoaction.
Experience taught us that Mayors and their LSBs learn better when sharing is done with their peers. For this purpose, we organized LSBs into Regional Education Councils. The UNICEF Mayors from Lanao took part in the Northern Mindanao Regional Education Council last February 20, 2020. The Maguindanao LSBs were all present in the Central Mindanao Education Council on March 12, 2020.
Central Mindanao Education Council
The Northern Mindanao REC learned from the experiences of Vice Mayor Alfredo Coro of Del Carmen, Surigao on how the LGU financed its education programs despite the lack of funds. They learned the importance of PPPs in education. Vice Mayor Coro reminded them that the private sector looks for Return on Investments and it would do the LGUs well if they would measure the success of their programs. He encouraged them to regularly report the progress of their work to donors because they expect to be informed of how every peso of their investment is spent.
The REC meeting had several light moments. Marawi City Mayor Majul Gandamra had more than his share of peer-bullying because he was absent in meeting for so many times. In fact, it was his first time to attend the meeting. He promised that he would make up by attending all succeeding meetings.
Northern Mindanao Regional Education Council
Another important agenda of the meeting was a monitoring of the progress of the LSBs in implementing their plans. Synergeia gives importance to monitoring so that implementation becomes continuous and sustained. An oversight by peers serves as both an incentive and a pressure for LSBs to implement their plans. To make their progress reporting interesting and fun, Synergeia introduced a question and answer portion that was patterned after the Ms. Universe contest. Every Mayor was asked to pick two questions that they should answer. The first one was a funny question, e.g. the theme song of their LSB, and the second one asked them to report on their successes and weaknesses. It was a time for siesta but people were keenly listening and laughing at the same time.
True to form, the LSBs belonging to the Central Mindanao Education Council showed their dynamism in their workshop. Despite the threat of COVID 19 on the air, the members were all present. The Council Chairman Ramon Piang has always been generous in sharing his experiences, lessons learned and good practices. He went further by sharing his plans for 2020 and how they will be financed. He informed that LGU has plans to construct and repair school buildings and has allotted P1.5 million from the 20% Development Fund for the purpose. There is a plan to construct four WASH facilities, continue the financial assistance program to poor students, provide subsidies to madaris schools, hire teacher-aides, support day-care workers, and pay for school utility expenses. North Upi also plans to conduct a parenting program, support the conduct of a remedial reading program and conduct a feeding program. It will also implement programs on student development like the Upi Youth Governance Program and a Children’sandaYouthCongress.
Mayor Piang said LGUs must be resourceful so that their plans can be brought into fruition. He is afraid that the SEF will never be enough to support the education projects. They will tap several sources for education financing. These are the 20% Development Fund, the Gender and Development (GAD) fund, Municipal Council for the Protection of Children (MCPC fund), and the Disaster Risk Reduction and Mitigation Fund (DRRMF). He advised that the LGU does not need to be tied to the SEF fund, especially for small LGUs with limited real property tax base.
Education Plans of Local School Boards. The LSBs have taken to heart their roles in charting the education path for their children. Their plans included strengthening their organization through expanded membership, regular meetings, and capacity building workshops, and looking for ways to increase the SEF collections. They planned to hold reading camps for children and parenting workshop such as in Mangudadatu and teaching camps to enhance capacities of teachers, like Buluan and Mamasapano. They see the need for education-related statistics to help in planning, such as Bubong which is building a database of enrollees and Omar which is mapping its out of school children and youth. Bubong is partnering with a non-government organization in its program to encourage outof school youth to return to school. Piagapo wants all school-age children to be in school and will conduct home visitations, monitor attendance of children in school and link up with parents.
Measuring LSBs’ Leadership in Education. We use a scorecard to measure the performance of Local School Boards. We look at several factors, such as the full involvement of the Local Chief Executive in leading the programs and whether has taken the driver’s seat in implementing the education reform agenda. We look at organizational attributes such as expanded membership, regular meetings, monitoring of accomplishments versus targets, and openness to community involvement in education programs. We also look at how the LSB’s planning process and use of education data to track student performance.
The next table shows the baseline assessment scores of LSBs in the UNICEF project sites, applying a rating scale where “0-1” means the LSB has started the process of organizing itself, “2” means there are ups and downs, “3” means mostly ups, “4” means happy with the results and “5” means our LSB is the best.
We are happy that 5 LGUs experienced more wins in reinventing their LSBs: Balindong, Marawi City, Piagapo, Matanog, Datu Saudi Ampatuan. Their LSB ratings ranged from 3.3 – 3.8. They have embraced the task of leading the education program in their respective communities. One (1) LGU, Mamasapano with LSB rating of 2.6, experienced ups and downs in its LSB reinvention process. And 8 LGUs have started the process of reinventing their LSBs: Bubong, Ditsa-anRamain, Marantao, Saguiran, Tamparan; Mangudadatu, South Upi, Buluan. Their LSB ratings ranged from 0.6-1.8. They are starting well and we continue to mentor and handhold our LGUs through the process of strengthening their organizations.
