Education Summit kicks off in Glan

By BEVERLY PAOYON

GLAN, Sarangani (August 16, 2011) - Education stakeholders coming from the Department of Education (DepEd), parents, and local leaders of this municipality crafted on Monday (August 15) their pledge to intensify efforts in fulfilling Sarangani’s education agenda 2013 thru “commitment and accountability.”

The agenda targets 95 percent participation rate, 81 percent completion rate, and 80 percent achievement rate for elementary pupils by the year 2013. The current performance statistics for elementary schools in Glan this year have percentage gaps of 12.61 (participation rate), 28.18 (completion rate), and 12.21 (achievement rate).

In the State of Municipal Education Address Mayor Victor James Yap Sr. delivered during the Education Summit, he admitted to have observed the conditions of “perennially low-performing schools” of his municipality. This led him to prioritize first the improvement of the socio-economic situation where many sub-standard schools are located.

Yap said many of the students attending to these schools are coming from marginalized families. Poverty has a “co-relation with the performance at school,” he said.

That is why the mayor’s main concern is to eradicate poverty “because if only the entire village can fend for themselves and eke out a living, then they will be able to better feed and clothe their children and send them to school on a regular basis.”

On the positive side, Yap reported that Glan Central Elementary School topped the latest National Achievement Test province-wide with the rating of 88.97 percent, a “dramatic rise” after being always at the bottom in the previous years.

He urged the teachers, parents, and the local leaders to “double (our) efforts toward academic excellence by creating more and better educational opportunities” for the children.

It was the first Education Summit in Sarangani to be followed by the rest of the municipalities. The summit was anchored on the quest “to bring quality education as foundation for poverty alleviation and economic progress” as its theme.



For his part, Governor Migs Dominguez challenged local leaders to “look into the problems of today and to address the problems of yesterday.” He said every leader should act now or it might be too late.

He then lamented on the report that only four finishes Grade VI for every 10 children enrolled in Grade I, only three graduates high school for every 10 students enrolled in first year, and only one succeeded in college out of 10 who graduates from high school.

Dominguez also urged local leaders “not to stop in the quest until there is a single child who is not in school.”

“Let’s continue to revolutionize education!” he said.

Schools division superintendent Allan Farnazo of the department of Education said “no one wins a battle without proper weapons.” He stressed that shared responsibility and collective accountability would enable the local government unit to meet the agenda goals.

Education is not only “making children read and write,” Farnazo said. “If we failed to educate the children today then we would fail of producing good leaders.”

The summit was organized by Quality Education for Sarangani Today, a program established by the governor in 2007 patterned after the education reform model of Synergeia Foundation, a non-profit organization.

The education agenda partners are DepEd, Synergeia Foundation, municipal government units, Union Bank of the Philippines, Sagittarius Mines Inc., Southern Philippines Power Corp., Conrado and Ladislawa Alcantara Foundation, Children’s Hour, Conal Holdings Corp., Finfish Hatcheries Inc., Philippine Business for Social Progress, World Vision and Jollibee Foundation. (Beverly C. Paoyon/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)