Assist public schools in your locality, DepEd urges LGUs

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education (DepEd) urged local government units (LGUs) to step forward and provide logistical assistance to power and maintain their public schools. 

Education Secretary Mona Dumlao-Valisno said that with their local school board funds coming from the 10 percent of their internal revenue allotments (IRAs) mandated to be used for education, LGUs are in a position to help public schools coping with resource shortages.

“Our LGUs can help public schools in their localities with their local school board funds. With these funds, they can prioritize the basic necessities of public schools, ensuring that their schools have electricity, water, and janitorial and security services,” Valisno said.

Valisno encouraged regional and division officials of DepEd to engage and mobilize local government units and the community to help schools meet their education targets.

During the forum on “Education Reform through Effective Local School Boards” at Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City yesterday, Valisno unveiled her plan to put up education centers in all 1,500 cities and municipalities nationwide with the help of LGUs.

“These education centers will harmonize existing DepEd programs that organize the involvement of local governments, local communities, and the private sector,” she explained.  

“We have the Library Hub, the Brigada Eskwela Plus, and the Adopt-a-School where all of these education stakeholders are already involved,” Valisno added.

Library Hubs are local government funded and private sector sponsored book warehouses where schools can borrow reference materials in bulk. Brigada Eskwela (BE) Plus is the scaled up version of the annual Brigada Eskwela national schools maintenance week. BE Plus upgraded from just cleaning up and repairing schools for the opening classes to getting everyone involved in getting kids to school and helping them stay there. The Adopt-a-School Program on the other hand helps private donors direct their support to schools that need them.

“These centers will be a venue for parent learning support for children and serve as knowledge management centers where basic family records and community data can be stored,” Valisno adds. “So the next time they hold a census, we will not anymore hear about teachers being waved off or chased by dogs.”

“The Department needs partners in education. It needs the whole community to be thinking about how to improve education,” Valisno said.

“The Education Centers will institutionalize practices where the local community can meet and jointly focus their efforts to address education concerns and put together their resources so that the desired outcomes can be achieved,” she explained.

The forum, organized by the Presidential Task Force for Education chaired by Fr. Bienvenido Nebres of Ateneo de Manila University with DepEd and the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Education, serves as a venue for sharing of best practices in school-LGU partnership. Aside from Valisno, the other resource speakers were Albay Governor Joey Salceda, Mayor Diosdado Pallasigue of Isulan, Sultan Kudarat; DepEd Assistant Secretary Jonathan Malaya, former principal of Avocado Elementary School Monica Sison, Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo, and Synergeia Foundation director Dr. Milwida Guevara.