QUEST reforms Sarangani education

By BEVERLY PAOYON

ALABEL, Sarangani (August 4, 2011) – Reforming education is one of the provincial government’s quests in order to eradicate poverty, according to Annalie Edday, program manager of Quality Education for Sarangani Today(QUEST).

After four years of integrating innovation and collaboration in the program, “Sarangani is becoming an education community,” Edday said.

She noted the “clear manifestations of greater community involvement and strengthened accountability over our public school system.”

Today, the comparative performance of Sarangani from 2006 to 2011 cited significant improvements in the achievement rate from 46.84 to 69.54 percent, completion rate of 41.45 in 2006 to 52.82 percent in 2011, and the participation rate of 67.89 to 82.39 percent.

QUEST is focused primarily to enabling Grade I and Grade II pupils to become independent readers in English.

The assessment test administered by the Department of Education in March 2011 showed significant improvement in the comprehension proficiency of the children resulting to 6 out 10 who can already read with comprehension while an average also of 6 out of 10 can answer correctly questions drawn from the stories read.

Before QUEST intervened, according to Edday, there was a high number of non-readers even in Grade 6. Thus, the current comprehension proficiency data was interpreted as a remarkable improvement in the literacy ratings.

Edday cited the importance of reading English to “provide children with access to information while it empowers them to learn almost anything. It also provides a solid foundation for the development of children’s comprehension and thinking skills.”

Every summer, QUEST has also been involving “kuyas” and “ates” youth volunteers in the Sarangani Big Brother’s Reading is Fun, a summer reading mentoring initiative of the Sangguniang Kabataan Provincial Federation with the Alcantara Foundation, Inc. to help slow readers read better.

QUEST is a program established by Governor Migs Dominguez in 2007 patterned after the education reform model of Synergeia Foundation, a non-profit organization.

On Friday (August 5), more than 4,000 education revolutionists will meet up at the Capitol grounds waving KKK banners and flags to once more demonstrate their cause to end poverty thru quality education.

The event – Education Revolution! - is an annual massive campaign to champion KKK (Karunungan Kontra Kahirapan or Literacy Against Poverty). It aims to unite Sarangans in championing KKK, provide workbooks for Grade I and Grade II pupils, and create massive awareness on the status of basic education in Sarangani. The event also highlights the public-private partnerships in the quest for quality education.

“The revolution perseveres to unite the Sarangans in fighting the heartbreaking poverty that has been oppressing our province and our country for a long time,” Edday pointed out.

QUEST will turn over books during the event loaded in seven military trucks to the 230 schools covering the seven towns of Sarangani. This is to “arm the 20,837 Grade I and 16,621 Grade II pupils with 1:1 ratio of workbooks,” Edday said.

QUEST believes that “it takes a village to raise a child.” This has been the policy direction of Governor Dominguez who kept on challenging his local leaders and Capitol employees never to stop providing quality education “as long as there is a single child who is not going to school” in Sarangani.

The program serves as “an avenue to develop collaborative efforts” among major stakeholders constituted by parents, teachers, local leaders, and private partners in improving reading and comprehension skills of children. (Beverly C. Paoyon/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)