Post 1: The Meeting of the Minds and Hearts
Do LGUs have the capacity to be responsible and accountable for the decentralization of education and improvement of delivery and performance of basic education?
Let us begin with Iloilo Province. The province was chosen as the pilot test site for implementing this Proof of Concept (POC) on the devolution of education to the LGUs from the Department of Education (DepEd) as the best strategy to raise the benchmarks, particularly in reading and comprehension, for Filipino children.
Specifically, the goal is for children in Grade 3 to read in English and Filipino well, for both word recognition and comprehension, by the end of 2024.
The POC will have three capacity-building components: a. Best practices in teaching reading; b. Reinvention of Local School Boards (LSBs); and c. Training of parents.
Armed with the support of the Office of Senator Angara, through the Education Commission 2 or EDCOM2, and a seed fund of Php 5.08 million earmarked in the General Appropriations Act of 2024, Synergeia led the first organizational and planning meeting in Iloilo City with eleven LGUs, regional officials of the DepED, the Department of Interior and Local Government, and members of the LSBs.
The meeting was very successful in the way the issues were openly expressed, a consensus was established on the rules of collaboration and roles of accountability and management and a solid commitment of all stakeholders involved was forged to ensure the success of this POC initiative.
What are the insights into the issues and challenges of education in the province of Iloilo that provide the POC’s framework for innovation success in an LGU?
Read this in the next post: Facing The Mirror in the Province of Iloilo
