Local government advocacies and initiatives are central in achieving quality education, delegates to the 10th Synergeia National Education Summit held September 8-9 at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City learned.
Elected, appointed, and career service government officials; education professionals; partner NGOs; private businesses; and other concerned stakeholders attended the summit hosted by Synergeia Foundation and USAID.
The summit’s delegates exchange ideas, experiences and programs for improving educational outcomes in public schools.
Vice President Leni Robredo appealed to governors and mayors to foster relevant, quality and effective instruction in their schools.
Robredo said the participants should support education reform.
She added that mayors, who work closely with education stakeholders, must empower local school boards.
Robredo pointed out that well-educated children have the best chance of economic advancement and are less likely to give up their integrity as persons.
The vice president cited the need to match courses offered with available jobs.
Robredo also called attention to widespread malnutrition among school children and suggested Brazil’s Hunger Program as a model for solving it.
Senators Juan Edgardo Angara and Bam Aquino pledged to support the reforms the summit organizers will propose.
“Each and every mayor or local government official needs to make education his personal advocacy,” said Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, “so the local government can fast-track reforms needed in their communities.”
Washington Sycip, Synergeia chairman, urged the delegates to “help the poorest of the poor get an education.”
“LGUs can help improve student scores in achievement tests through partnerships between local governments, schools, and communities,” explained Dr. Milwida Guevara, Synergeia’s chief executive officer and president.
Guevara, a former undersecretary of finance, related national educational failure to poverty incidence and noted that some 44 percent of poor households are headed by individuals who did not finish elementary school.
“For every 100 students who enter Grade 1, almost one-third (32 pupils) drop out by Grade 6,” she added. “Making sure that children finishing their primary education is a necessary step in ending poverty, but this challenge is too big to be faced by individual schools and the Department of Education.”
Synergeia partners, led by Dr. Susan Berms and Brian Levy of USAID Philippines, Fr. Jose Villarin and Fr. Bienvenido Nebres of Ateneo de Manila University discussed participative education reform, fostering good education governance, encouraging community engagement, and fund raising for projects through open forums and workshops.