© Provided by Mediamerge Corporation school in a bag
Twenty-four local government units (LGUs) received assistance packages worth P1.5 million each for their innovative educational programs on the last day of the 11th National Education Summit by nonprofit education coalition Synergeia Foundation Inc. on Friday.
Awardees of the inaugural Synergeia Seal of Good Education Governance received a surprise package tailored for their communities' basic education needs courtesy of PLDT, Smart Communications, and various sponsors.
These LGUs include:
Tuba, Benguet;
Dao, and Ivisan in Capiz;
Argao, Balamban, and Dalaguete in Cebu;
Bacnotan, Santol, and Simunul in La Union;
Alimodan, Cabatuan, Concepcion, Lambunao, Miagao, and Mina in Iloilo;
Valenzuela City in Metro Manila;
Datu Paglas, and North Upi in Maguindanao;
Cagayan de Oro City in Misamis Oriental;
Diadi, Solano, and Villaverde in Nueva Vizcaya;
Diffun, Quirino;
Bongao, Tawi-Tawi;
“We put together an education governance scorecard to focus on the results of their work. While anecdotes and feel-good stories about education initiatives are helpful, the scorecard enables us to objectively evaluate the performance of LGUs,” Synergeia chief executive officer Milwida Guevara said in a statement.
“We are happy to recognize these outstanding LGUs, and hope that the Seal of Good Education Governance would inspire them to keep making children’s education a priority in their governance agenda,” she added.
School in a bag
All 24 LGUs received a Smart School-in-a-Bag, which contains essentials to conduct interactive education that was inspired by practices in mountainous or remote barangays.
"Yung teacher, he or she spends the week dun sa mga mountain barangay, uuwi siya sa bayan during the weekend. Wala namang signal doon sa matataas na lugar. When they go to town, dun sila nagdodownload ng fresh material. So we call it an offline-online situation," Ramon Isberto, PLDT public affairs head, explained to GMA News Online.
"Then when she goes back, meron na siyang material. [Kinopya] lang namin 'yan sa ginagawa ng mga tao sa matataas na lugar," he continued. "It was an adaptation of a practice that people actually use."
Each School-in-a-Bag contains a solar panel with a small generator, a monitor, five tablets with educational modules and applications, portable wi-fi device, and tablet laptop.
Teachers will be trained how to use the gadgets and how to incorporate them in their lessons.
Introducing gadgets with educational applications to the classroom improved attendance and class participation due to the novelty of the gadgets and the ease with which lessons are taught with their help.
“It excites them, it engages them,” Isberto said. "The first thing that happens is absenteeism drops. In some of the schools, enrollment goes up 'cause word goes around. And that's not a small decision for a child to make. Many of the kids walk long distances and literally ford through streams and rivers just to get to school."
"This is something we learned over the years, picked up the pedagogy, the learning system; we put it together with the devices to make it into a package."
The best of partners
Synergia held the 11th National Education Summit with support from the US Agency for International Development, PLDT, Smart, which in turn looked at investors to sponsor School-in-a-Bags and donate them to selected communities.
Isberto explained that they chose to work with Synergia as they had picked out LGUs with drive and concrete plans to provide and improve basic education, most of which are from far-flung and impoverished areas.
"Maraming challenges ang education sa far-flung areas. At the same time, improvements in education has a misproportionately large impact on the welfare of the communities in that area," he said.
"In a way, it's not surprising, especially kung malayong lugar, usually ang income ng municipality is not that high, you have to be innovative; otherwise, you're not gonna get very far. Yung mga bayan na mas hirap, pero interesado sa edukasyon, mas magiging innovative," Isberto continued.
Isberto added that Synergia's Seal of Good Education Governance helped them find "good quality partners" willing to work with Smart and the company's outreach programs in the long run to further their education plans.
“Yung hindi mo na kailangan kumbinsihin,” he said. "What you want is to find partners who are really interested in improving education in their locality. Kasi kapag kumbinsido na yung tao, that's half the battle won." —ALG, GMA News