The recent Barangay Elections proved to be a timely event before the Education Summit in Guimbal as it brought fresh faces into the forefront of educational reform in this Iloilo municipality. A newly-elected barangay captain vowed to allocate resources from the barangay fund to help address identified problems faced by schools in his territory.
The development came about in light of a presentation by Mayor Christian Garin showing the state of Guimbal’s basic education based on recorded performance indicators. She challenged barangay officials, the PTA officers and the student government to help the Department of Education (DepEd) and the local government to come up with a collective agenda to help curb the unstable performance rates.
“Education is a key to success but finding the right ingredient to achieving the quality of basic education is not a simple endeavor,” says Mayor Garin
Representatives from different sectors offered their commitment to the cause and shared ideas to better improve the current dismal state of education in Guimbal. A student leader proposed a peer-mentoring program for slow and non-readers in every school. A PTA delegate brought up the conduct of parenting seminars as a way to inform parents of their critical role. A local government unit (LGU) official committed to an efficient tax collection system in order to raise more revenue for the Special Educatio Fund.
Mayor Garin welcomed the enthusiasm but offered a word of caution to the participants. “Education is a key to success but finding the right ingredient to achieving the quality of basic education is not a simple endeavor,” she said.
A total of 140 people, comprising parents, teachers, School Heads, DepEd, LGU Department Heads, school board members, NGOs, and elementary and high school student representatives joined the summit on November 22, 2013.
(By Ruth Santos with report from Edwin Nacionales)