Forward0
On August 11, in anticipation of the 2024 International Youth Day, the Multiply-Ed team conducted a Participatory Education Governance Forum in Seda Hotel Bacolod City featuring discussions on the expansion of Local School Boards (LSBs) and the importance of including a student representation to fill in the gaps in the education sector.
The event featured guest speakers, namely Superintendent Gladys Sales of the Himamaylan DepEd SDO, Mr. Ernani Suron of the City Government of Naga, and Himamaylan Vice Mayor Justin Gatuslao who delivered a message of his hands-on support on the proposed policy for student representation in the Local School Board of their city.
Participation is the Way To Go
The first session of the forum began with Superintendent Gladys Sales emphasizing the essence of supporting quality education and its relation in empowering youth and teachers. She briefly talked about DepEd’s quality policy statement that shows its commitment to achieving quality education through proactive leadership, establishing efficient policies and programs, and the like.
However, as a member of the DepEd SDO of Himamaylan and with her first-hand experience as a former educator, Ms. Gladys underscored that quality education can only be accomplished by having students and teachers be a part of LSBs.
To press on this matter further, she took the School Governance Council (SGC) as an example, stating that adding student representation to the Local School Board is possible as its only difference to SGC is its ability to cater the needs of schools at the division level.
By securing a seat in the LSB and through the support of local government units, this will enable students and teachers to participate in discussions and share diverse perspectives on how their challenges can be properly addressed, therefore serving as a means to attain quality education.
Sharing Experiences to Inspire
Following the discussion on participatory mechanisms, a Zoom presentation on the experiences of Naga City in expanding the Local School Boards was led by Mr. Ernani Suron, one of the LGU personnels spearheading the cause for quality education in the Bicol region.
He shared the progress of educational institutions in Bicol by highlighting the public and private schools that have gone through changes and are now offering quality education to their students, starting from the preschool level up to the tertiary level.
In line with this, he discussed the ways forward of Naga City that helped meet the needs that their region’s education sector is currently experiencing. Mr. Ernani pinpointed that they started by prioritizing the provision of eight representatives in the Local School Board and by maintaining accountability to the people of Naga through transparent distribution of materials being acquired and procured.
Part of the agenda of the City of Naga is the inclusion of student-representatives in the LSB, apart from the members of the Sangguniang Kabataan.
An Array of Advocacies for Negros
The highlights of the forum include the advocacy workshop that was led by the Student Council Alliance of the Philippines (SCAP) to train their members on how they can strengthen their campaign for LSB expansion.
In this segment, the participants were formed into groups and each had the opportunity to brainstorm what advocacy actions they can produce to address the specific issues that the Negrense youth is facing in terms of education.
The attendees listed a wide range of activities, with some of them proposing to engage with student councils and LGUs by conducting learning exchanges and by utilizing social media to educate other people.
However, an interesting keypoint was brought up during this workshop; one of the participants shared that to ensure the effectiveness of their advocacy actions, using traditional forms of information dissemination is a must, especially that there are far-flung areas in Negros Occidental.
All in all, the advocacy workshop illustrated the deep understanding of the Negrense young people of the challenges of their region and what hinders marginalized areas from experiencing quality education.
It also shows that the minds of young people in general are capable of contributing ideas that our government can use to improve governance.
A Milestone that Elevates Education
Before the forum came to an end, a draft proposed policy that aims to establish an expansion in the Local School Board in Himamaylan was presented by Ken Gilo, the national chairperson of SCAP.
The purpose of this policy is to ensure that transparency, participation, and accountability is being practiced in the city of Himamaylan by granting a seat to student representatives in the Local School Board, one of the policy’s key provisions.
After having lobbied this policy, Vice Mayor Justin Gatuslao had gone out of his way to introduce the ordinance so that it may take effect. In his video message, he shared that after participating in a school heads training, many people were not aware of the details of the LSB budget leading him to conclude that principals, school heads, and teachers must be included in discussions as to where LSB budget is being allocated. Vice Mayor Justin also added that the local school board policy reform will help ensurie that more voices are heard and that better governance is being practiced.
This goes back to the point reiterated throughout the whole session that the youth need to assert our right to have a seat at the table. If this policy is passed, Multiply-Ed Negros Occidental is certainly on their way towards becoming the first region with a Local School Board that has student representation in the country.
(Photos courtesy of Student Council Alliance of the Philippines)