At the 12^th National Education Summit, USAID Deputy Mission Director Patrick Wesner welcomed participants and expressed his great honor to address  a gathering of stakeholders who work tirelessly to strengthen education governance in the Philippines.

“At USAID,   we believe that in order to improve the quality of education, we must work together to transform how the education system is governed.”  He shared that since 2013, the USAID, Department of Education and Synergeia Foundation have been implementing the Education Governance Effectiveness (EdGE) project which contributes to achieving the shared goal of improving learning outcomes in the Philippines for children in the early grades.   This partnership heightened transparency, accountability, and the participation of stakeholders in education policy formulation and implementation.  This boosted community engagement by developing School Governing Councils and implementing school improvement plans, further accelerating academic performance in public schools.

“I congratulate the hard work and tireless dedication of school governing councils, principals, parents and teachers.  Your efforts have improved the learning environment at your schools and provided students with access to a quality education.”    He noted that over 2 million children have already benefitted from educational activities, including remedial reading classes and summer reading camps, because cities and municipalities prioritized early-grade literacy and good education governance.

“Our theme for this year’s summit is “Bigger, Stronger, Humbler.  “Bigger” because we continually strive  for the day when all Filipino children will have access to the quality education they need to fulfil their dreams.  “Stronger” because deeper commitment and unity across a wide range of partners will make us strong enough to achieve this bigger vision.  Lastly, “humbler” because we know that the work is hard, but by humbly learning from each other, we can create synergy to overcome future challenges.”  During the summit, Mr. Wesner encouraged everyone to take the opportunity to share ideas with each other on strengthening and sustaining progress within their communities in order to provide children with the best opportunities.

Lastly, Mr. Wesner commended all the partner cities and municipalities that have achieved good governance through education service delivery.   “This would not be possible without the tireless dedication of and leadership by champions, such as you.  You mentor peers and inspire them to keep moving forward by prioritizing education governance through transparent budgeting and effective policy-making.”

(Highlights of Mr. Wesner’s speech at the 12^th Washington Sycip National Education Summit held on September 5-6, 2018 at the PICC)

San Gabriel teachers travelled all the way to Bacnotan for their Remedial Reading Workshop because their town did not have a hall big enough to accommodate all the teacher-participants.  The long travel through hilly roads nor the lack of local venue did not dampen their spirits.  They have imbibed San Gabriel Mayor Hermenegildo Velasco’s passion for education.  Mayor Velasco said that even if San Gabriel is just a 4^th class municipality and a small town in La Union, he would not let these hamper their goal to improve the education of children in their town.  They cannot stay 4^th class forever, and education is the key to their development.

The teachers actively participated in the different exercises on phonemic awareness, comprehension and thinking skills.  They were not timid at all.  They were very thankful for the many things they learned from the workshop that they can use to teach reading to their Grades 2 to 6 students.

During the break-out session, Dr. Guevara asked them to create something that would summarize their experience in the whole-day training.  One of the participants, Grade 3 Teacher Laila Supanga Kawain of Lon-oy Elementary School wrote a poem on how she felt about the training, what she learned and what left a mark in her from her experience.   Teacher Laila explained that she saw her co-teachers were cutting pieces of colored paper to come up with art pieces. But she was not very good in art work.  So she wrote a poem to express how much she has learned and appreciated the training.  She said blending of sounds and the techniques to teach it are what she would use to her students.  Through her poem, she wants to show her gratitude to Synergeia and to EdGE, and wishes for another training in the future.

Below was the poem that she wrote:

TRAINING ON REMEDIAL READING

Teachers’ training on remedial reading

How I really love this thing

Blending vowel and consonant sounds,

Makes reading truly fun.

Things that I don’t know before,

This time, I have learned them now.

Teaching children how to read

Is what makes a teacher great!

Synergeia, we thank you

For the sacrifices that you do

We know we can never repay you.

What you have taught, we will just do!

Mayor Flora Villarosa of Siaya, Zamboanga del Norte believes that education is the only way out of poverty for her town.  She worked with stakeholders in the community to put together several building blocks of what seems like a grand education plan that is now reaping benefits for children and communities in Siayan.

She made it a point to increase their awareness of parents on the importance of education to their children’s future.   She tasked the barangays to help improve the school attendance of children by asking barangay officers to conduct home visits to check on children who did not attend school.

The LGU provided free dormitories to children who have to walk very far to get to school.  Distance should not be a reason not to attend school.  What the LGU did was to provide free dormitories initially in eight schools before it the project was expanded.

The Gulayan sa Paaralan project, which is funded by the LGU, provides vegetables that parents cook for the students’ lunch. Parents are tasked to do the cooking to make them more appreciative of the efforts to improve the children’s education.  The Mayor said this has made many parents happier, too.

Another program that Mayor Villarosa is proud of is the Summer Camp for school children. In the summer camps, students learn skills in arts and sports.  They hire talented individuals from nearby municipalities as coaches. This project has greatly reduced out-of-school youths in Siayan because the rule was that these programs are strictly open for enrolled students only.

And to address the needs of their largely indigenous peoples community, they continuously worked on improving their Schools of Living Traditions. As of June 2018, Siayan had an IP-speaking Kindergarten class with the assistance of the Assissi Development Foundation. With the help of World Vision, they have been testing the decision-making capability of children and their parents.

During the 12^th National Education Summit, Mayor Villarosa proudly shared the ‘fruits’ of Siayan’s education program.  The students’ participation rate has improved from a low 51% in 2012 to 67% after only four years of intervention.   Siayan is also among the top 10 LGUs with the lowest non-readers and frustration readers among Grades 1 to 6 in both English oral and silent reading for SY2017-2018.  Only 12% of Siayan’s students remain challenged in reading abilities.  Siayan’s LSB is among the high-performing LSBs, and SGCs in many schools are functional and involved in formulating school policies.  The EdGE Program is proud of Siayan.