Valenzuela City always makes us proud.  It has the distinction of being the only LGU so far which implements bottom-up budgeting of its Special Education Fund.  It involves School Governing Councils of all its public elementary schools in the process of determining how the SEF will be spent.  After experimenting on it last year, Valenzuela is doing a round 2 of the BUB with the SGCs.  It has really democratized the process of SEF budgeting, truly a “budgeting by the people.” 

It has been quite a journey to reach this point.  Mayor Rex Gatchalian sought the help of the USAID and Synergeia in capacitating the SGCs.  They were taught policy formulation, action planning and task analysis.  They learned about the RACI, identifying inputs, outputs and outcomes, and branding their SGC.   Add to these were other training which they were also involved in as barangay officers, principals, teachers or parents, like remedial reading and nanay-tatay-teacher workshops.  At the beginning, some SGC members were uncooperative during workshops.  They had their heart and mind on other matters.  But with patience and perseverance of mentors and the LGU, the SGCs eventually realized the benefit of their training and how they can help uplift the education of Valenzuela children. 

Last March 11, 2020, the second BUB workshop was held in Valenzuela City.  The SGCs of 42 elementary schools were excited to present their proposed projects.  Each was given 5 minutes to describe their project, objectives, implementation plan, proposed budget, indicator of success and how the project can be sustained.   During the presentation, the representatives of each school gave their best shot to make an impact on the audience and the city officials by using visual aids, props and costumes. Most proposals focused on arts and music, reading and literacy, health, parent-children seminar, innovation of student’s education, livelihood program, safety and  disaster preparedness, and mathematics.

Valenzuela City will provide a standard budget to every school depending on its size, and an additional amount to the top 50% of schools in each category.  The LGU will also support the 10 SGC projects voted by all 42 SGCs during the workshop.  The top 10 will receive a special prize of P20,000 each.   

              Standard Budget

Additional Budget

At the end of the workshop, special awards were announced and given by Synergeia to a number of project proposals that were most relevant to education, most creative, most innovative and with the highest SGC counterpart funding.   The Top 10 and top winners per category of schools will be announced by Valenzuela City LGU in its fb page. 

Special Awards

Snapshots of SGC Projects which Won Special Awards

“Pasi-club-an” sa DES of Dalandanan Elementary School

The SGC of Dalandanan ES believed that what children learn within the four walls of the classroom is not enough to fully mold their talents and skills.  Through their project “Pasi-club-an sa DES,” they aim to encourage students to be active in school activities through membership in school clubs.  This project won the “most relevant” award during the SGC workshop. 

The SGC and the school will put up different school clubs in Dalandanan ES, such as academic clubs in math, reading and science, sports club, arts and craft club, and talent club in theater and music.  They will talk with parents to allow the children to join the school clubs with a promise to report back to parents, during the parents-teachers’ conference on the club activities and accomplishments.  The school clubs will hone the students’ talents.  They will join and try to win in competitions, and this will be a ‘come on’ for other students to join in. 

The SGC believes that with their project,  the students will be more knowledgeable in academic subjects, they will learn about teamwork and discipline, and they will become healthier.   Their project’s measures of success will include: readiness of 90-100% of club members in competitions they will join, winning in these competitions and readiness to participate in the Festival of Talents which the school will hold two times within the school year.   

“Livelihood Program” of Andres Fernando Elementary School

The SGC project of Andres Fernando ES is a livelihood project that will benefit families that belong to the marginalized sector of Barangay Malanday.  The SGC believes that the livelihood project will give parents and children a bonding moment and provide families with skills that can be used to earn income and help them send their children to school.  It won the “most relevant” award during the workshop.

The livelihood project will target 100 parents and their children enrolled in Andres Fernando ES, or a total of 200 participants.  The parents will be taught basket weaving and pastillas making while the children will be taught how to make the pastillas wrapper or  ‘pabalat’ –  an artful, intricate way of paper cutting which is a Filipino culture that is slowly vanishing.  With the help of the Barangay livelihood committee, the beneficiaries will be monitored if the project was able to help them in sending their children to school.   The SGC believes that the program can be sustained because the first beneficiaries will be the trainers in the next round of the project.

“Pagninilay sa Tunay na EDUKASYON: A Parent-Child Seminar Workshop” of Coloong Elementary School

This SGC project also won the “most relevant” award.   Its main objective is to impart to the pupils and the parents the true essence of education – – knowing the value of education through good manners and right conduct, and knowing the value of family.   As measures of the project’s success, Coloong SGC identified the following: increase in parents’ participation in school – related activities by 75-85% , increased in students’ daily attendance in school by 80-90%, reduction in cases of misbehavior by 70-80% and improved relationship between parents and students, specifically those recorded as child-at-risk and pupil arousing concern, through interview and survey with the help of the Guidance Coordinator.

The SGC gathered data from various sources like the PTA conference attendance and Guidance Office records which they will use in project implementation and post assessment, and they already met with stakeholders on proposed activities.  For parents, their proposed activities are sessions on ‘Parental Obligation under the Law’ and ‘Proactive Parenting.’  For students, they will conduct workshops on ‘Values Formation: Positive Language and Actions’ and ‘Revisiting Good Manners and Right Conduct.’  They will also hold a parent-child forum and sharing, and values formation activity.   

“SADGES Pipe Band” of Santiago A. De Guzman Elementary School

Santiago A. De Guzman ES won the “most creative” award for the SGC project, and rightly so.  They proposed to put up a pipe band they will call “SADGES Pipe Band” using an instrument made of used and recycled PVC pipes.  They will build 5 units of this PVC pipe instrument for a 20-member pipe band.  Their other goal is to hold a music, dance and arts festival which will highlight the performance of the pipe band.     

“Reading in Tandem” of Malinta Elementary School

Malinta ES won the “most innovative” award for its SGC project entitled “Reading in Tandem.”  The main objective of the project is to help children especially those in Grade 1 level to read with proper comprehension.  They believe that the ‘foundation’ of a child in learning how to read is when he/she is in Grade 1 level.  To achieve this goal, the SGC’s approach is collaboration among students, school, teachers, parents, barangay and the community. 

The SGC will conduct workshops where children in upper Grades read stories in tandem with children in Grade 1, with the help of the teachers and parents.  The stories will be interesting and easily understandable.  The children will have activities like learning to express themselves by creating their own short stories, telling stories, and developing skills like drawing and storytelling.

They are targeting that by mid-assessment of their project, or around October 2020, 100% of Grade 1 pupils are able to read and 50% read with full comprehension.  

“Kastilyo ng Karunungan at Kabuhayan” – E-bike Classroom and Livelihood on Wheels Project of the SGC of Roberta de Jesus Elementary School

For this year’s BUB, Roberta de Jesus ES submitted an enhanced version of its 2019 SGC project.  They call their project “Kastilyo ng Karunungan at Kabuhayan,” an interesting concept that puts together a learning feature for children and a livelihood feature for parents and community members.  They won the “most creative and highest SGC counterpart” award during the SGC BUB workshop. 

According to the SGC of Roberta de Jesus ES, the main purpose of their project is “to make every child become a holistic individual with proper values and impressive character traits, to make every child a successful reader and to provide livelihood to households so that the loop of connection for every family in the barangay is synergize.”  Their project will have 3 phases or “stations” as they call it.  ‘Station 1: Reading is Fun’ will focus on reading and other learning activities like storytelling.  It aims to encourage children to love reading and motivate them to focus on their studies instead of loitering in the streets where bad influences proliferate.  Their e-bike classroom on wheels will have books, charts and other educational material, provide free paper, notebooks, pencils, story books, colors, and give candies and snacks to children.  They will target children ages 5-14 years old.  ‘Station 2: Beati-Dudes’ will focus on transforming the youth by providing teaching, training, relational, behavioral and spiritual services.  ‘Station 3: Skillshare’ is the livelihood development component that will provide training to parents and others in the community and give them access to funds so they can set up their own microenterprise and earn some income for their families.   

They will do a pre- and post-assessment in coordination with the M&E Team to measure their performance.  They said their project is going to be successful if they attain a 3-5% increase in students’ reading ability, if students develop proper behavior, good manners and right conduct and if families will generate additional income. 

They estimated that their project will require P100,000 budget from the LGU with their SGC providing a counterpart funding of P50,000.