Tag: #synergeia

Amid pandemic, a library becomes a learning refuge in Lanao del Sur town

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By Manolo Serapio Jr.

A newly built library in the municipality of Taraka in Lanao del Sur province has become the hub of a reading campaign by the local government determined to increase the number of readers among children and expand their vocabulary one word, or two, at a time.

As the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools and forced children to learn remotely, Taraka began a remedial reading program in November in the barangays, or villages, to help students. It turned out that some students needed more help, prompting the local school board led by Taraka Mayor Nashiba Sumagayan to act.

For at least twice a week, grade school pupils attend an hour-long storytelling session in the Taraka Library Hub while wearing masks and keeping a safe distance from each other. The students are grouped based on their grade levels and only 20 are allowed at each session.

“We are focusing on slow and non-readers,” says Sumagayan, a former teacher herself. “Our main objective is to increase their reading comprehension, skills and vocabulary.”

It is meant to supplement the learning modules which public school students use to study remotely and to make better use of the children’s time during the pandemic, she says.

The program began this month and children who are unable to join due to the limited space in the library are given a copy of the storytelling sessions on a flash drive. Sumagayan said they plan to bring the reading sessions into the different barangays via a mobile library with books and other materials carried around town by car.

“In a day, if they learn a word or two or more, that’s already a great accomplishment because we can never tell how long this pandemic will be,” says the 46-year old local chief executive.

Seal of Good Education Governance

The Taraka Library Hub is a project of the local school board aimed at improving the reading proficiency of children in the municipality that is part of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Taraka is among the local government partners of Synergeia Foundation which works to lift the quality of basic education. Synergeia facilitated the partnership of Taraka with the Library Renewal Partnership, a public-private alliance meant to empower communities in the Philippines, helping ship the first batch of book donations from Manila to Taraka.

Education is close to Sumagayan’s heart. She was assistant professor of English at the Mindanao State University for 12 years before embarking on a political career in 2013 when she was elected mayor of Taraka, succeeding her husband.

Even before the pandemic hit, she has been hands-on in enforcing reforms to improve the delivery of education in the town. Part of her pre-pandemic schedule included regular visits to the schools to make sure teachers are around and monitoring the performance of both learners and educators.

Through the years, the number of student readers in Taraka has risen: now six out of 10 have become independent readers from four previously. In 2019, Taraka was among the recipients of the Seal of Good Education Governance awarded by Synergeia and the United States Agency for International Development.

Synergeia and USAID will announce the next winners of the Seal at the virtual 14th Washington SyCip National Education Summit to be streamed live on Synergeia’s Facebook page.

To help educate students outside classrooms, Synergeia has been pushing its local government partners to hold limited in-person learning sessions safely in places where online access is difficult. They are being done in other parts of Lanao del Sur as well as in Maguindanao, Iloilo and La Union provinces.

“We shouldn’t stop learning just because there’s a health crisis. Everyday is a struggle for us, everyday is a journey and we need to continue our journey especially in education,” said Sumagayan.

THE POWER OF LEADERSHIP

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Before one reaches the  Central Eementary School in the Muncipality of Taraka, Lanao Del Sur, one has to pass thru a canal located just near the school entrance.  Among the many urban legends connected to that canal is the strange tale that once you throw a coin into it, the water will miraculously turn from brown to  crystal clear .  That is why when the SYNERGEIA team visited the Muncipality of Taraka for a meeting with the different school governing councils,  we did try to throw a coin into the canal, with the hope perhaps of proving the legend true.

Of course, nothing happened. The water remained brown as ever. 

But if one does want to see a sense of transformation in the Muncipality , then one need not throw a coin into that muddied canal. What one needs to do is see how education in the municipality is getting clearer with each passing day, thanks to the imaginative leadership of the Mayor Nashiba G. Sumagayan.

Being a former professor herself, Mayor Nashiba is a hands on Local Chief executive when it comes to making sure that education reforms are carried within her area. She often visits the schools under her care. She makes sure that teachers do come to school and perform their duties. She regularly calls for teacher meetings to assess not only the performance of the learners, but also to monitor the performance of the teachers’ themselves.

She has also taken the initiative of not relying too much on the municipality’s Special Education Fund to fund the education projects of the community.  Knowing full well, the difficulty of collecting real property taxes in the region, she has learned to set aside a portion of the general fund to meet the challenges of improving the state of education. She has also proactively looked for other sources of funds to support their programs.

This type of grounded leadership is one of the main strengths of the Local School Board of the Municipality of Taraka.  Surely it has contributed to Muncipality being awarded as one of the recipients of Synergeia’s 2018 Seal of Good Edication Governance Award.

But Mayor Nashiba’s leadership does not end with herself. She has encouraged every member of the Local school board to be involved and to participate in all the education programs of the Muncipality. She believes that coordination and cooperation are the main ingredients of a functioning school board.

To make this work, regular Local School Board meetings are held . Issues are openly discussed and solutions are vigorously debated upon.

The regularity of the school boards’ meeting and their proactive approach to issues has borne fruit during the Covid19 crisis.   The board took the initiative of distributing relief packs to all the learners of the municipality.  They have also began planning on releasing printed learning and reading materials to address the concerns of parents regarding the availability of study materials this coming school year.

An involved local chief executive and an empowered local school board can indeed transform muddied minds into minds capable of clearer thinking.

So next time, one visits the municipality of Taraka, instead of throwing your coin into the muddied water canal near the Central Elementary School and hope for a miraculous change of color, may I suggest that you go straight to the school itself.

Perhaps, you may be lucky enough to see what transformation is all about.

The Greatness of Mr. Wash SyCip

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Mr. Wash SyCip should have been 99 years old on June 30 this year. He did not live to be 100 perhaps because he had already achieved his mission in life.  Through his example, he taught us that greatness lies in helping others, particularly the poor, so they can overcome the shackles that bind them to poverty.  He dedicated his life in helping children complete, at the very least, basic   education.  He always asked the question of how we can give them the best opportunities that are equal to, if not more than what he experienced when he was a student in Burgos Elementary School.

He brought the need to improve basic education to the center of consciousness of the nation.  He spoke about it in every forum.    He used his influence and gently pressured the leaders of the business community to earmark part of their profit to help children in public schools.  During his birthdays, he requested his friends not to give him gifts but to sponsor learning programs. He cajoled me to overcome my shyness so that I can join his dinners where I was presented as Exhibit A to promote his advocacy. I found myself sitting beside Mr. James Wolfensohn, President of the Word Bank, President B. Aquino, the CEOs of top corporations, and even the beautiful people of Tatler, to talk about our education programs.

 He was equally generous with his own resources.  Even without asking, he funded programs that reduced dropouts, trained teachers, transformed mayors to become education leaders, and helped parents to become more involved with schools.    He agreed to pose for billboards and advertisements on condition that his honoraria would finance programs in education.  He invested in many programs that answered the needs of schoolchildren– food, workbooks, training, and playgrounds.  When relief was withheld from Naga City because of politics, he gave Mayor Jesse Robredo  one million pesos so that school buildings can be rebuilt.

He gave children, their local leaders, parents, and teachers, the most precious gift of all— his presence.  He opened our education program in ARMM by personally going to Marbel in South Cotobato to preside over a meeting with mayors and barangay captains.  He gamely participated in a group dance with parents from Taguig in a rackety-rackety basketball court beside the railroad tracks.  He found it difficult to reconcile how poverty could rise side by side with opulence in BGC.  He walked with informal settlers from Intramuros.  By listening to them, he gave proof that men of power and wealth did genuinely care.  He looked so frail in our last education summit before his passing, but he walked up the stage to rally “his education agents” that their cause was great and sublime. 

In all his greatness, Mr. SyCip was a model of humility and selflessness. Through his examples, he demonstrated that power and wealth are only valuable when they are used to empower those who have less I life.   He demanded no entitlement.  He queued up with all the others to wait for his turn.  He took no offence when ordinary people did not know his name.  He humbly extended his hand and said “I am Wash.”  He refused to be escorted to meetings.  He was uncomfortable every time I walked him to his car and said “you should be doing more important things”.

Mr. SyCip constantly accosted me for not spending more time for visioning and planning.  He said that as CEO of an organization, I should be empowering the staff and trusting them with operations. He made us learn accountability by demanding that targets be set to measure ROIs from our budgets.  He went beyond stories and anecdotes that dramatized our successes.  He demanded not just numbers, but outcomes.  How many children completed the school year?  How have reading and math scores increased?  How many grade one children completed grade six?

And he did not mince a word when we failed to meet our targets or prepare our reports on time.  And then, he would make up by giving us chocolates and things that caught his fancy.  During our first Synergeia Christmas, he distributed cash-gifts to the staff saying that we should never fail to appreciate their valuable contribution.

Mr. SyCip had great accomplishments and was sought by the high and mighty all over the world for his advice and wisdom.  But for me, the greatness of Mr. SyCip was in seeing with his heart, in loving the poor, and in many ways, being childlike.  He gave us the gifts of trust, faith, wonder, and devotion.

by Milwida Guevara