Wexistence

Mayor Robredo and one of his biggest fans (me)

As a student of political economy, Mayor Robredo’s transformational leadership in Naga City left a huge impression on me. I read this journal article in college and it was the first of many lessons that would lead me to firmly believe that there is hope for the Philippines. This conviction fuels my work in education, responsible citizenship and good governance.

I do development work as part of Synergeia Foundation, an organization that has Mayor Robredo among its esteemed trustees. For the last eight years Synergeia has been empowering local communities to practice participatory governance in education, drawing lessons from the Naga experience. We’ve made it work in 168 cities and municipalities all over the country, including ARMM. We believe there’s no reason it can’t work in the remaining 1,466 — especially if Mayor Robredo were at the helm of DILG.

Synergeia’s president and CEO, Dr. Milwida M. Guevara, said it best when she listed Ten Reasons Why It is Best for the Country to Have Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo as DILG Secretary:

1. He leads by example. He is honest, competent and just.
2. He will institute accountability. Measures of performance for local government officials will be defined. Good officials will be rewarded and non-performers will be sanctioned.
3. All the operations of DILG will be made transparent.
4. He will inspire and mentor mayors on how to translate participatory governance from an idea to being real.
5. He is a visionary and thinks outside the box. He has the proven capacity to develop programs to solve red tape and bureaucratic procedures.
6. He will give dignity to every Filipino by defining public services that each resident is entitled to as well the standards within which they should be delivered.
7. He will work with non-governmental organizations, people’s organizations and civil society in providing oversight on the performance of local government officials and DILG personnel.
8. He is thrifty and will see to it that the DILG’s budget will be cost-effective.
9. He will has the engineering skills to simplify processes and translate them into computerized processes that will streamline operations and decision-making.
10. He makes us proud of being a Filipino because he is outstanding in every way.

Mayor Robredo, ang laban mo, laban naming mga Pilipino.

Find out more about Mayor Robredo on the Support Mayor Jesse Robredo for DILG Secretary Facebook page.

I work for an organization that does community-based education reform programs. Currently we are operating in 164 municipalities all over the country and our programs cover nearly two million public school children.

We rely on a number of assessment tools to gauge the academic performance of pupils in our sites. We track their performance over the years to help us measure the impact of our interventions. One of these tools is the National Achievement Test (NAT), which is administered yearly by the Department of Education (DepEd).

In the school years before SY 2008-2009, DepEd’s National Educational Testing and Research Center (NETRC) annually provided us a copy of the results for the entire country. They came in nifty Excel spreadsheets like this and showed the mean percentage scores (MPS) per division per region for that particular school year. It was a relatively hassle-free transaction.

In SY 2008-2009, DepEd, in typical government fashion, decided to make a simple process unnecessarily difficult. They decided that they would no longer release the results for the entire country. They made us make separate requests for each division in which we have projects. It took them forever to process our requests. We received some of the results, we didn’t receive the others.

Then to make matters worse, this SY 2009-2010 they issued DepEd Order No. 91, s. 2009 to “regulate” the use of the NAT results.

Before a “researcher” can obtain a copy of the results, he/she must first jump through the following hoops:

• Prove that he/she is qualified to do research work (They do not, however, specify what kind of proof they require. And anyway, what if I’m not “qualified” to do research work? What if I’m just an ordinary citizen who wants to know the levels of academic performance in different parts of the country?)
• Present a copy of his/her approved thesis/dissertation proposal signed by my thesis adviser (But… I’m not a student and I’m not going to use the results for a thesis/dissertation. Why is there the implicit assumption that the only people who want a copy of the results are students?)
• Submit an endorsement signed by his/her dean (What dean?)
• Sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) stating that he/she:
  • Will not compare regions, divisions, schools and examinees without taking into consideration other variables that may have a substantial effect on the outcome of the test (Well, what if I’m not going to use the results in a study? What if I’m going to present the results in an education summit to show a particular community just how badly their kids are performing compared to the national average and to drive home the point that their situation is dire and that they need to do something about it?)
  • Will furnish a DepEd a copy of my study (Paranoid much?)
• Pay the corresponding fee for the data requested (We didn’t have to pay for the data before. Now there’s a rate of 1 peso per pupil. I was aghast. So if we want the NAT results of 1.76 million pupils does that mean we have to pay 1.76 million pesos?!? I nearly fell out of my chair when NETRC said yes.*)

Furthermore, NETRC will only release 10% of the actual number of examinees per test per year. The 2009 NAT was taken by some 1.76 million pupils from 31,196 public and 2,386 private elementary schools nationwide. That means at most, we can only get the results for 176,000 students. Such a small percentage does not paint an accurate picture of academic performance in the country.

But that seems to be the whole point of Order No. 91. DepEd says they want to “safeguard and prevent the misuse, mishandling, misinterpretation, exploitation and manipulation” of the NAT results, but to me the subtext of that policy reads, “We don’t want to show anyone the results because they make us look bad.”

DepEd is perceived to be the least corrupt government agency and has an approval rating of 62%. I guess people don’t know just how bad things really are. How devoid the system is of professionalism, transparency and accountability. How bureaucratic and inefficient it is. How appallingly feudal the culture is, how superintendents are lords and their divisions their personal fiefdoms. How politicized appointments are and how much discretion there is over the use of funds.

One of the groups I’m involved with, the Movement for Good Governance, just held a roundtable discussion on education reform with leading experts on the topic. The results will be published in a paper that will form part of our 2010 development agenda. In the mean time, the following make for good reading on the subject:

• The Challenge of Governance in a Large Bureaucracy (Department of Education) by former DepEd Undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz
• Department of Education: When Refroms Don’t Transform (UNDP Philippine Human Development Report 2008-2009)
• United Nations: The Philippines trails Tanzania, Zambia in education
• Education for All – Global Monitoring Report 2010
• UNICEF EAPR Statistics on Philippine Education
• UNESCO Statistics on Philippine Education
• NSCB Statistical Indicators on Education

* So apparently there are packages of sorts. The NETRC guy I was talking to said that if we want to save we can opt to pay per school instead of per student. The sample computation they gave me for one of our schools in Tondo came up to 320 pesos for two school years (SY 2008-2009 and SY 2009-2010, which are the school years we don’t have data for). That rate brings the total cost down to a less shocking amount, but it’s still prohibitive. We have programs in thousands of schools! I can understand charging a small processing fee but their rates are unreasonable. These test results are public records and should be made available without restriction. Congress needs to pass the freedom of information bill post haste.

I met Lenard and Joanna at a training session we held for teachers in Sarangani last October. Their story makes me bawl like a baby every time. Teachers like these, who demonstrate such passion, dedication and courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, are my heroes.

LENARD AND JOANNA
by
Milwida M. Guevara
President, Synergeia Foundation

This is not a love story between Lenard and Joanna. Rather, it is a story about their love for B’laan children from Blat, Maasim.

Every Monday morning, Lenard and Joanna leave their homes in General Santos City to teach in Blat. Their school is up on the mountains and they have to bring with them their one-week’ supply of food, medicine, clothes, and school supplies. It will take them another week to see their family again. Joanna’s son Jaz is six-months old and is left under the care of her sister-in-law during weekdays. Sometimes, Jaz takes time to warm up to her when she comes home during weekends. Lenards’ daughter, Denise, is two-month’s old. Her wife who is also a teacher has to leave Denise as soon as she resumes her work in another school in a faraway village.

There are 81 children in Blat Elementary School with only two teachers. Joanna handles the students who are in grades one, two, and three. Lenard handles those who are in grades four, five, and six. Joanna used to cluster the children into sessions, e.g. grade one children were taught in the morning, and grade two children were taught in the afternoon. But no children came in the afternoon. They joined their parents in clearing the land, planting corn, and harvesting camotes. So, she meets them all in the morning and groups them according to grade level. Lenard does the same. How they are able to deal with six grade levels in a cramped classroom blows my mind away. Lenard constantly counsels the parents to allow their children to attend school in the afternoon. But he has to compete with their need for food and livelihood, and often times, he loses. His battle is often harder in influencing parents to send the boys to school. Boys are stronger and more useful in the farms.

Lenard’s face is so sad. I asked him if it is because he misses his family every day especially in the evening. His face even grew sadder. He cannot even read a book or prepare his lesson plans in the evening. There is no electricity in the village and they have to get by with the light of a candle or an alcohol lamp. He is able to send text messages to his wife, but can only do so until Tuesday, because the battery in his cell phone runs dry. There is also no water in the village and the nearest spring is about an hour away. Lenard’s grade six school children help him fetch water everyday but they can only carry a gallon full.

Joanna brings her own supply of purified water from the town because she had amoebiasis. But she can only carry a maximum of 6 liters. Thus, she has to be efficient in rationing water for her many needs. She lives in a hut that was constructed for her by the parents. They insisted that the hut be in the center of the village so that they can keep an eye on her.

I asked Joanna what keeps her going. She recalled that her childhood dream was to be a teacher. Her face lit up as she recited the poem “To be a Filipino” which she asks her pupils to constantly read. She draws her inspiration from the poem as she reaffirms that being Filipino is enabling the B’laan children to learn well. Her eyes welled with tears as she remembers the challenges she faces. The children have no paper or pencils. She used to devote her salary for school supplies but she now has to use her money for milk and needs of her baby. With a tinge of guilt, her tears started falling down as she recalls that her grade one children have to contend with pencils that were used by her former grade one students. The pencils are so short and the children’s fingers are not big enough to hold them. Joanna’s tears came with the tears of her principal, Ms. Angelina, and also with mine.

Ms. Angelina is the cluster head of three schools. She was ever so embarrassed that the NAT scores of Blat children were the lowest in the province. The children’s average was only 20 percent, i.e. they can only answer 2 out of 10 questions correctly. She was also so upset by the failure of Lenard and Joanna to submit their reports on time. She called them on their cell phones, but there was no response. So, she sent a message to the two of them to report to her office to give them a reprimand. Lenard listened to her with a stoic expression. But Joanna was unable to contain her tears. The session turned out to be a crying session. The month following, Ms. Angelina went to visit the Blat school carrying with her “10 lechon manok” as her share in the village’ celebration of the new school building that the provincial government constructed. Ms. Angelina scolded Joanna again, but for a different reason. Joan was in labor but insisted on helping Lenard. Ms. Angelina sent her to the hospital and took her place. Since then, the principal has become a mentor, a principal, and a mother.

We had a box of crayons, paper, pentel pen, and scissors that we used for the teachers’ workshop. I turned them over to Ms. Angelina who gave them to Lenard and Joanna. Lenard hugged the box and Joanna hugged me. It was as if I gave them a treasure. It was my turn to feel guilty for being unable to appreciate so many things in life and for splurging on things that catch my fancy.

Later in the day, Governor Migs Dominguez gave them more hope as he promised to build a water supply system and devise means to supply the village with electricity. I saw Lenard smile for the first time. Joanna said that the scores of the children went up to 30 percent last year. With the help of the governor, the three of them will be able to move mountains. I think Lenard and Joanna will live happily ever after.

The Pagbilao PMT

We’re moving forward in Pagbilao, slowly but surely. Last year I had such a hard time just getting someone from the LGU to talk to me, now we have a multi-sectoral Project Management Team (PMT) and we’re collaborating on an education program. Getting a new project off the ground is an experience similar to what I imagine birthing a child must feel like.

Setting up before the participants arrive, conducting the workshop

I conducted a workshop with the new PMT yesterday, whose members were handpicked by the Mayor to represent the different education stakeholders in society. The team is comprised of principals and teachers from both public and private schools, DepEd supervisors, the PTCA president, the SK chairman, the municipal administrator and planning and development coordinator from the LGU, the president of the chamber of commerce, and representatives from various social organizations including the senior citizens’ group. It’s such a great mix. The members each bring something unique to the table, and with their combined talents, resources and spheres of influence, I think we can achieve great things in Pagbilao.

DepEd presents a situationer

Pagbilao’s problems in education are not unique. The PMT identified low achievement test scores, low survival rate, high drop out rate, lack of instructional materials, lack of training for teachers, no home-school collaboration, parents who are not actively involved in their children’s studies as some of their major issues. They decided to conduct a series of assessment tests and surveys to determine the extent of the problems, and the data gathered will serve as the basis for refining their work program. There were lots of interesting insights and suggestions that emerged yesterday, and I’m really excited about putting them all together.

Cynthia from Team Energy, Ivy and I with Team Energy’s powerplant in the background

I never mind having to get up at 3:00 am and spending hours on the road to get to Pagbilao. I’m just happy that with each visit we make incremental progress. It feels great to be working with people who are so eager and so committed to education reform. Plus, Team Energy is such a gracious host and the VIP treatment we get at Bayview is a nice perk. Buffet breakfast and lunch FTW! I’m awfully cheap. You can work me to death for as long as you feed me.

Brigada Eskwela

In the afternoon we visted Pagbilao Central School to drop off supplies for Brigada Eskwela (National Schools Maintenance Week). Posing above with the brushes and cans of paint are teachers, Team Energy volunteers and the DepEd district supervisor.

Mr. Washington Sycip
“(Mr. Sycip) does not concern himself with popularity or political correctness. We don’t have to agree with him. But we should listen.” – Jessica Zafra

Mr. Sycip Quotes*

1. A nation’s progress is determined by what it does to develop its human resources.
2. Education is the most effective economic equalizer.
3. Government funds should go to the basic education for children in the lower group.
4. If you are going to steal, at least spend the money in your own country instead of buying buildings on Fifth Avenue.
5. The rich have a responsibility to this country and they are simply not giving enough.
6. If a politician stops worrying about his ratings and just does what he has to do, he will get reelected.
7. We have too many lawyers, we can’t even export them. Law schools should be replaced by engineering schools.
8. Should we not encourage churches to be used as school houses in towns where many public schools have no chairs and even no books?
9. Age makes a man an icon and imbues him with fascination.
10. Say what you think should be said and not what other people want to hear.
11. Do you think rich Catholics are having less sex than the poor Catholics? I do not think they are having less sex. They are using contraceptives and condoms.
12. By the time the Pope changes his mind on birth control, we will all be dead.
13. I will not spend for the education of kids who would only join the US workforce. It does not bring anything to the nation. Money should go to improving teachers’ skills and motivating them to be more inspiring.
14. Political freedom cannot come before economic freedom. Should we have an Asian model of democracy where economic and education matters are delegated to a group of technocrats that are insulated from politics?
15. The world is flat and young people should be free to move anywhere. But we should strive to keep their hearts Filipino with a resolve to return to serve in their country’s development.
16. I have always known Filipinos are extraordinary.

Related link: Questions for the Future of UP, Mr. Sycip’s speech at the University of the Philippines Centennial Lecture Series last September 3, 2008 in Diliman

* Compiled by KZ as part of Synergeia‘s Christmas presentation to Mr. Sycip

Last Saturday, at the Education Summit of San Joaquin Elementary School in Pasig:

Q: Ano ang mga suliranin o “issues” na may kinalaman sa pag-aaral ng inyong mga anak?
A: Di malutas ang global warming.

Q: Ano ang maari ninyong gawin upang makatulong sa mabuting pag-aaral ng inyong mga anak?
A: Di na ko mag totong-its, pramis.

+3

It took me a while to find my hotel shuttle, because it didn’t immediately register that “Bela Euñita” was supposed to be me. Take that, Rhayan Sumo.

Having local chief executives call my cellphone to ask me how my flight was allows me to pretend I’m some kind of VIP.

My mom likes to fuss over me whenever I leave for a trip. Not because she thinks I’m a half-wit who’ll forget to lock her door or keep an eye on her valuables, but because it’s her way of showing affection. This morning her motherly admonitions were:

“Dress conservatively ha. Probinsyano mga tao doon. Hindi sila sanay sa Manila girls.”

“Wag ka masyadong mag e-English doon.”

“Text me every now and then so I know you’re still alive. Teka, how will I know it’s you? We should have a password.”

I’m in the hotel cafe using the wifi and having a halo halo. I’m going to go have an early dinner now and then a massage in my room. My grueling meeting schedule starts tomorrow!

The City Mosque in Kota Kinalablu
Kota Kinabalu is a beautiful city, though the experience was slightly marred by my oh-my-God-I-want-to-die stomach pains. Ry suspects I may acid reflux. We still managed to get around the city and see some sights, though I had to down massive doses of antacid every two hours to keep me going.

Tune Hotel is a great budget hotel. They offer “a 5-star sleeping experience at a 1-star price” by charging you for only the things you use. You only pay for the number of hours or air conditioning you use, the room doesn’t come with towels and toiletries unless you request for them, etc. The room is small but it’s very comfortable and the bathroom is impeccably clean, which is what matters most to me. I also liked the convenience of being right next to 1Borneo Mall.

1Borneo has shuttle buses that drop off tourists and hotels guests at various locations around the city. It would’ve been a convenient (and cheap, since it’s free) way to get around, but unfortunately the schedule is terribly unpredictable. They’re supposed to come around ever thirty minutes but they can keep you waiting for hours. If you’re pressed for time, don’t depend on them. Take a cab. Cabs are expensive but the public transport system isn’t easy to navigate. They don’t have a train system, it’s not clear which bus goes where and it’s difficult to ask for directions because not everyone speaks English.

Ry would try conversing with people in Indonesian, and occasionally they would understand each other, but when that failed pointing out a place on a the map to a cab driver usually got us where we wanted to go. While Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia are almost the same thing, Ry says they pronounce some words differently and in general the Malaysians speak too fast for him to keep up with his rusty Indonesian. (Ry lived in Jakarta for a few years when he was younger.)

Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort is a beautiful resort and I’d love to stay there someday when we can afford to splurge.

It should be noted that the Airport Cafe serves great Nasi Goreng.

San Roque Power Corporation’s pool
San Roque, Pangasinan
Last week Dr. Guevara, Nicole (my co-worker, not Nix) and I went on a roadtrip to Pangasinan for a series of meetings in Sta. Barbara, Natividad and San Roque. We stayed at the sprawling 600 hectare compound of the San Roque Power Corporation, which felt more like a mountain resort than a hydropower plant. Their guesthouses are not too shabby, they’ve got pretty landscaped gardens, and they even have a pool. Dr. Guevara told me not to get used to it though, because those are probably the nicest accommodations I’ll ever get on the job.

Agno River, Pangasinan
The view from the top of the dam was breathtakingly beautiful. Being surrounded by so much nature made me want to break into song.

Some fun facts about the Agno River and the San Roque Dam:

• The Agno River is the third largest river in the Philippines with a total length of 221 km.
• The dam is located on the Agno River, spanning the municipalities of San Manuel and San Nicholas in the province of Pangasinan.
• The reservoir impounded by the dam extends north into the municipality of Itogon in the province of Benguet.
• The dam is 200 meters high, 800 meters wide and 1.2 kilometers long. It weighs about 90 million metric tons.
• The hydropower plant has an installed rated capacity of 345 megawatts (MW). It can operate year round at its dependable capacity of 85 MW for a minimum of eight hours a day. When surplus water is available, the SRMP can provide extra peaking capacity (beyond 85 MW) and/or generate off peak power.

It should be noted that there are goats everywhere and your car is no match for their sheer number. They are kings of the road.

San Roque goats
This week, I’m off to Bicol for another series of meetings. It’s the first time I’m going to be meeting with the LGUs and the local project management teams there, and unlike the Pangasinan trip, I’ll be conducting workshops all by myself. I’m a little nervous, but it’s heartening that the boss has enough confidence in me to send me out there independently so early in the game. (I haven’t even been with Synergeia a month.)

It doesn’t look like I can go with Ry to Singapore (where he’ll be attending a video game developers conference) in September. I can’t afford to take the time off from work. We still have Shanghai in October, Kuala Lumpur and Angkor Wat in November and Bangkok in December.

P.S. Wanderous rarely gets updated these days because Ry and I have been so busy with work and life in general. We’re still trying to figure out what to do about that. The response to the blog has been great and we’d really like to keep it up.

It’s Monday morning and I’m harassed and on the way to work I managed to tear my left contact lens and rip my stockings while stuck in traffic on the Skyway. But thankfully I just have to wait thirty more minutes before the mall opens and I can replace them both, and grab a chai latte from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on my way back to the office.

Slightly tangential upate: On my way to the optical shop I ran into EJ Afzelius, a college blockmate whom I hadn’t seen in ages. “EJ, you look so…” I wanted to say “grown up” but instead I said “dignified.” In college he always looked like he’d just rolled out of bed. Today he was wearing a tie and pressed slacks and he was carrying a briefcase. Man, has it really been that long? Are we really that old?

We exchanged the usual pleasantries, how are you, what do you do now. Upon finding out that I’m in educational reform, EJ exclaimed, “That was your term paper!” It took me a while to remember what he was talking about. For an English class in second year we wrote term papers which we presented in class. EJ said my presentation really made an impression on him, and it was nice to see that I’d come full circle. Funny, the things people remember about you.