PROCEEDINGS: LOCAL EDUCATION POLICY WORKSHOP 10 October 2013, Crowne Plaza Hotel Ortigas
DEVELOPING LOCAL CAPACITY TO INSTITUTIONALIZE EDUCATION REFORMS (PRELIMINARY PHASE) In line with the Coalitions for Change - Education
LOCAL EDUCATION POLICY WORKSHOP 10 October 2013; Crowne Plaza Hotel Ortigas Workshop Proceedings1 A. WORKSHOP OVERVIEW 1. CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVES The Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) is the umbrella organization of all leagues of local elected officials, is committed to pushing for convergence among national government, local governments, and private and civil society sectors to achieve inclusive growth, genuine autonomy, and improved governance and service delivery in the local level. ULAP performs policy support, systems and capacity building, and mainstreaming and scaling up of best practices for local governments. In this regard, through its preliminary engagement with the AusAID-The Asia Foundation (TAF) Coalitions for Change (CfC) focused on improving policy and capacity for local education reforms, ULAP has worked on the following:
Creation of a Convenors’ group that will eventually take the lead and share the implementation of the full project (Deliverable: a group of organizations and individuals willing to work on public basic education reforms); Generation of inputs and support from local chief executives for the program (Deliverable: consultations with 20 LGU Chief Executives and/or their local education officers and representatives); and, Creation of a roadmap of getting the buy-ins of local chief executives along with their key municipal education officers on social service delivery and improvement (Deliverable: Recommendations based on the experience of both the 162-52 Health Coalition2 and the current project).
1
Research led by Ms. Czarina Medina, M.A. (Head, Plans & Programs Unit, ULAP), under supervision of Ms. Sonia Lorenzo (Executive Director, ULAP). With assistance from Kevin dela Cruz (Program Officer, ULAP), Kenneth Turaray (IT Officer, ULAP), Merry Ann Sanchez (Office Secretary, ULAP). Report version 03 November 2013. For queries regarding the report, please contact the Research Lead at czarinamedina@gmail.com. The video documentation of the Local Education Policy Workshop may be accessed through this Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7ZgaqMugbo 2 The 162-52 Coalition for Accelerating the Achievement of Maternal and Child Health is a convergence initiative lead by ULAP, Zuellig Family Foundation, Department of Health, Access Health International, and Sanofi Philippines, along with more than 30 organizations operating in different parts of the country.
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PROCEEDINGS: LOCAL EDUCATION POLICY WORKSHOP 10 October 2013, Crowne Plaza Hotel Ortigas
In pursuit of these objectives, ULAP, from March to August 2013, convened select education stakeholders from the private and civil society sectors to align efforts in delivering program interventions for local governments and conducted a series of LGU consultations 3 to surface the needs and issues with regard to local education governance and service delivery. The summary of the range of issues that emerged from the consultations is in the table below:
Hence on October 10, 2013, ULAP with its CfC partners organized a Local Education Policy Workshop which aimed to do the following: Validate
Discuss
Move Forward
•Present and validate the needs and issues in local education governance output from the ULAP consultations with LGUs;
•Gather the inputs of Local Chief Executives for the policy proposal being drafted by the Coalitions for Change;
•Gather the commitments of the LCEs as champions of the local education reform for the proposed policy initiative.
This document summarizes the proceedings of the workshop, outlines the recommendations from the attending Local Chief Executives (Provincial Governors, City Mayors, and Municipal Mayors), and identifies critical action points to be undertaken by ULAP, its member leagues, and the CfC partners.
3
See Annex A for the Full Report of the LGU Consultations, which was also presented in the Local Education Policy Workshop.
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PROCEEDINGS: LOCAL EDUCATION POLICY WORKSHOP 10 October 2013, Crowne Plaza Hotel Ortigas
2. ATTENDING LOCAL CHIEF EXECUTIVES The table below lists the LCE attendees of the workshop. In summary, 36 local chief executives (and two representatives)4 attended, excluding those LGUs who were present in the preliminary consultations conducted. Classification City City City City City City City City City
Designation Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor
Local Chief Executive Name Edward Codilla Noel Rosal Faustino Silang Marivic Belena Herbert Bautista Marie Demetriou Ronaldo Aquino Nestor Alvarez Agustin Bascon
Mayor Mayor Mayor
Aniano Antalan (represented by Cleto Bravo Gales Jr.) Joseph Penas Jun Pacalioga
Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor
Ian Christopher Escario Alan Adlawan Democrito Diamante Jose Alba Leoncio Evasco Jr. Leonardo Javier Claudio Bonior Alfredo Coro
Mayor
Rommel Arnaldo
Municipality Municipality Municipality
Domain Name Ormoc, Leyte Legazpi Tayabas San Jose, Nueva Ecija Quezon City Tabaco, Albay Calbayog Science City of Munoz Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental Island Garden City of Samal Digos Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur Bantayan, Cebu Asturias, Cebu Tuburan, Cebu Mambusao, Capiz Maribojoc, Bohol Javier, Leyte San Miguel, Bohol Del Carmen, Surigao del Norte Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte Almada, Cotabato Libungan, Cotabato Aleosan, Cotabato
Mayor Mayor Mayor
Municipality Municipality Municipality
Pikit, Cotabato Llanera, Nueva Ecija Bongao, Tawi-Tawi
Mayor Mayor Mayor
Virginia Concepcion Manuel dela Cerna Vincent Sorupia, Jr. (represented by Rowena Banaga) Muhyryn Sultan Lorna Vero Jasper Que
City City Municipality Municipality Municipality Municipality Municipality Municipality Municipality Municipality Municipality Municipality
4
The breakdown of the attendees is: Provincial Governors = 5 City Mayors = 12 + 1 representative Municipal Mayors = 19 + 1 representative
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PROCEEDINGS: LOCAL EDUCATION POLICY WORKSHOP 10 October 2013, Crowne Plaza Hotel Ortigas
Classification Municipality Municipality Province Province Province Province Province
Domain Name Goa, Camarines Sur Jose Panganiban, Camarines Norte Tarlac Camarines Sur Davao del Norte Bohol Misamis Occidental
Designation Mayor Mayor
Local Chief Executive Name Antero Lim Ricate Padilla
Governor Governor Governor Governor Governor
Victor Yap Miguel Luis Villafuerte Rodolfo del Rosario Edgardo Chatto Herminia Ramiro
3. SUMMARY OF WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES: The table below gives a summary of the workshop activities and the critical points that emerged in the various discussions: Activity Welcome Cocktails and Networking Dinner
Speakers/Facilitators Notes/Summary October 9, Wednesday, 7PM Remarks: The networking dinner gave the networking opportunity to both partners and LCEs so that Ms. Sonia Lorenzo partnerships can be developed in terms of Executive Director, ULAP implementing education-related programs in their Atty. Joey Mendoza localities. Program Director, TAF Dr. Steve Rood The attending partners were: Country Representative, TAF Affiliated Network for Social Accountability – East Asia Program for CheckMySchool Ayala Foundation Inc. for Text2Teach E-net Philippines (capacity building programs) Jollibee Group Foundation for Busog Lusog Talino Philippine Business for Social Progress education programs Robredo Institute of Governance for their academic programs The Asia Foundation The exhibits of the partners were carried over until the day of the workshop. October 10, whole day5
Opening Prayers Orly Marasigan Executive Director, PALMA Alliance 5
Photos of the workshop activities may be found at the ULAP Facebook album through this link: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.420424591390923.1073741832.353582278075155&type=1
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PROCEEDINGS: LOCAL EDUCATION POLICY WORKSHOP 10 October 2013, Crowne Plaza Hotel Ortigas
Activity
Opening Remarks
Presentation of LGU Local Education Needs and Issues Consultation output Commitment Setting among LCEs
Speakers/Facilitators Mayor Jasper Que Bongao, Tawi Tawi Dr. Steve Rood Country Representative, TAF
Ms. Czarina Medina Head, Plans & Programs Unit, ULAP
Mayor Herbert Bautista National President, League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP); Quezon City
Notes/Summary
Dr. Rood gave an overview of the state of education governance, including the role of education in development and the local examples wherein Local School Boards and strong education governance have made difference in education service delivery. He also cited the gains in education through public private partnerships over the recent years. He made note that education is not a devolved function of government, but the role of local governments is crucial for this service delivery area. He stressed the importance of local governments, national governments, and education stakeholders from different sectors to come together to address the education challenge in the country. See Annex A for full report of LGU Consultations
The LCEs committed to the following:
To the efficient and effective allocation and spending of the Special Education Fund (SEF) to help address the needs of students, teachers, and other education stakeholders; To expand the composition of the Local School Boards (LSBs) to enable better transparent, inclusive and effective local education governance; To vigorously collaborate with the private and civil society sectors for programs that address and sustain responses to local education needs; To actively support and push for different policy initiatives in collaboration with National Government Agencies and National Legislative Offices, to set the agenda and guidelines for transparency, accountability and improvement of education outcomes.
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PROCEEDINGS: LOCAL EDUCATION POLICY WORKSHOP 10 October 2013, Crowne Plaza Hotel Ortigas
Activity
Press Conference
Discussion 1: Local Government Experience and Issues on Education Governance
Speakers/Facilitators
Panel consisted of: Gov. Edgar Chatto Secretary-General, League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP); Bohol Mayor Herbert Bautista National President, LCP; Quezon City Mayor Oscar Moreno National Chairman, LCP; Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Sandy Javier National President, League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP); Javier, Leyte Ms. Sonia Lorenzo Executive Director, ULAP Atty. Joey Mendoza Program Director, TAF Moderated by: Ms. Liann de Leon Executive Director, LMP Panellists: Mayor Alan Adlawan (Asturias, Cebu) Mayor Jun Pacalioga (Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur) Mayor Dondi Silang (Tayabas Quezon) Gov. Victor Yap (Tarlac) Moderator: Ms. Sonia Lorenzo Executive Director, ULAP
Notes/Summary The LCEs read the commitments and signed a “commitment tarp” that printed the items above. The forum was able to surface the following issues:
That LGUs support the K to 12 Curriculum as it allows students to be able to work immediately after finishing Senior High School; That there is concern about the two-year gap in 2016 when there are no freshmen college students entering universities and colleges, especially in cities; That there are vast supply and resource issues in local education (reiterating the issues from the LGU consultations) such as classrooms, land titling and acquisition, and teachers, especially in poorer cities and municipalities; That LGUs are committed to solving the education challenge, and shall be done through partnerships.
The commitments signed by the LGUs were also reiterated during the press conference.
The plenary discussion sought to deepen the issues and needs identified in the LGU consultations through the experiences of the invited LCE panellists. Some of the issues and recommendations that emerged were:
The devolution of education to local governments is an important issue to consider because of the inefficiencies of the Department of Education’s response to the needs of local schools. Strong community participation through private-public partnerships in education programs, and through the Local School Boards is a primary key to education service delivery, following the Jesse Robredo experience in Naga. There is an inequity in the funds for education, Page 6 of 12
PROCEEDINGS: LOCAL EDUCATION POLICY WORKSHOP 10 October 2013, Crowne Plaza Hotel Ortigas
Activity
Discussion 2: Partners’ Experience and Issues on Coimplementing Education Programs with LGUs
Speakers/Facilitators
Panellists: Ms. Lulli Herras-de Leon (President, Ayala Foundation Inc.) Ms. Carmela Oracion (Executive Director, Ateneo Center for Educational Development) Ms. Gisela Tiongson (Executive Director, Jollibee Group Foundation Inc.) Mr. Anton Dignadice (Executive Director for Education Programs, Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.) Moderator: Prof. Anne Candelaria (Ateneo de Manila UniversityDepartment of Political Science)
Policy Development
Moderators: Province group –
Notes/Summary because it does not reflect the varying gravity of needs in poorer cities and municipalities. There should be a certain target within the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of LGUs that can be and will be allotted specifically for education programs. The current education curriculum does not support the sustainability of backbone industries in the country, particularly the fishing and agriculture sectors. Fisherfolks and farmers are aging. Students are trained to be professionals and there is a general lack of interest to return and improve these sectors. The experiences of the LCEs in the panel show that effective multi-stakeholder participation and the harmonization of different levels of local governments can be done to address education challenges. The plenary discussion sought to listen to the experiences and recommendations of private and civil society partners in terms of enhancing local education service delivery with LGUs and the local DepEd units. Some of the issues and recommendations that emerged were:
The panellists stressed that education is not simple and requires a holistic view which requires a participatory approach. All the engagement models of the panellists encourage participatory governance. Work on education on the ground requires focus on outcomes as opposed to simply counting outputs. This also requires that the local DepEd and LGUs share common outcomes and indicators, budgets, and even “language” of engaging each other. Better work dynamics between the LGUs and local DepEd is needed. More than the policies on education, the mentality on local education governance and service delivery has to be improved. This applies to the LGUs, local DepEd, and local stakeholders. The results of the workshops are discussed in a latter section of this report.
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PROCEEDINGS: LOCAL EDUCATION POLICY WORKSHOP 10 October 2013, Crowne Plaza Hotel Ortigas
Activity Workshops
Response
Closing Remarks
Speakers/Facilitators Prof. Kiko Magno (DLSU-JRIG) City groups – Prof. Nora Licup (Bicol University – Graduate School) Ms. Raquel Castillo (E-net Philippines) Municipality groups – Prof. Anne Candelaria (Ateneo de Manila UniversityDepartment of Political Science) Ms. Sonia Lorenzo (ULAP) Local Governments Gov. Edgardo Chatto Secretary General, LPP; Bohol Department of Interior and Local Government Director Anna Bonagua Bureau of Local Government Development Department of Education Hon. Mario Deriquito Undersecretary Partnerships and External Linkages Mr. Geoffrey King Counsellor, AusAID
Notes/Summary The LCEs were asked the following questions: What are the primary issues and needs that are applicable to your experience in local education governance and service delivery? What is currently being done to address these issues and needs? What policies can be recommended so that the work in local education can be enhanced? After the small group discussions, representatives presented summaries of their discussions to the plenary.
Important points in the responses are discussed in a latter part of this report.
Mr. King emphasized the importance of change in education to AusAID, and how this is reflected in the vast work implemented by AusAID in the Philippines. He congratulated the participants and placed the challenge of moving forward with the policy and action points discussed in the workshop.
B. EMERGENT POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESPONSES The discussion in this section places emphasis on the recommendations that emerged from the workshop discussions. While much has been shared in terms of what is currently being done in each of the LGUs to address various facets of the education challenge, it is more important at this point to forward the recommendations to inform the work of ULAP, CfC, LGUs, national government agencies, and private and civil society partners.
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PROCEEDINGS: LOCAL EDUCATION POLICY WORKSHOP 10 October 2013, Crowne Plaza Hotel Ortigas
1. Outputs of the Workshop Small Group Discussions The table below summarizes the policy recommendations from the LCE groups. The recommendations are divided to “local” or “national”, based on what level of change of implementation and policy is required. Group Provinces
• •
•
•
Cities
•
•
•
Municipalities
• •
Policy Recommendations – “LOCAL” Expansion of LSBs in the local level Shifting the function of the LSB from SEF-approving entity to multi-sectoral planning and advisory body Improvement of the collection of Real Property Tax (no need for other sources) Province to coordinate LGU levels
Policy Recommendations – “NATIONAL” •
•
• •
Expansion of LSBs, with special note on the inclusion of private schools Better process of sharing data and financial planning/reporting between local DepEd and LGU Tax collection improvement, with emphasis on leveraging on schools to improve tax collection campaigns
•
Expansion of the LSBs Accounting of best practices for documentation and knowledge sharing
•
• •
•
• •
• •
•
Formalization of the expansion of LSBs in governing laws (i.e., the Local Government Code) Deped to absorb all locally paid teachers to ease the spending of the SEF which is primarily allocated to the hiring of teachers Increased allocation of budget for classrooms Counterpart funds from DepEd for programs since LGUs shoulder counterparts to current and incoming programs (i.e., from private and civil society partners) Amendment of LG code to include participation of the local school board in the process of selection of teachers Revise SEF guidelines to include the hiring non-teaching faculty/staff Establishment and institutionalization of “Seal of Education Champions” to recognize and incentivize excellent performance of LGUs Draft the equalization formula to address the disparity problem of SEF between big cities and small cities/municipalities Local DepEd to align MOOE with LGUs (including transparency /monitoring of spending) Decentralize hiring of teachers; LCEs to co-draft the SEF, and not only “mere approving” of budgets already drafted by local DepEd SEF sharing between municipalities and province (from 50/50 to 80/20) Allowing LGU to utilize other statutory funds for education-related spending (such as calamity and GAD; other local funds) [On K to 12] Contextualization of DepEd curriculum for agricultural and skills-based
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PROCEEDINGS: LOCAL EDUCATION POLICY WORKSHOP 10 October 2013, Crowne Plaza Hotel Ortigas
Group
Policy Recommendations – “LOCAL”
Policy Recommendations – “NATIONAL”
•
programs/items Providing space in the curriculum for local concerns like food sustainability
To these recommendations, the following responses were given: Speaker Main Points in Response
LGUs Gov. Edgar Chatto •
•
Gov. Chatto affirmed the role and commitment of LGUs in education. He also expressed need to move forward with suggestions identified in the workshops.
DILG Dir. Anna Bonagua •
•
Dir. Bongua noted that event is on the 22nd anniversary of the Local Government Code, and complimented how the activity pushes for upholding autonomy of local governments. She also affirmed the commitment of DILG to support LGUs.
DepEd USec. Mario Deriquito •
•
•
USec. Deriquito affirmed the issues in the mapping, particularly the relationship of education with other service delivery areas, and acknowledged that there are some inefficiency in the response of DepEd to local education issues. He stressed the current initiatives of DepEd on education and emphasized the role and contribution of local governments in addressing education challenges. He suggested the creation of a roadmap and its eventual pilot testing to learn more about how to harmonize the dynamics of local DepEd and LGUs.
C. CONCLUDING NOTES AND ACTION POINTS The Local Education Policy Workshop gave the opportunity for discussion of recommendations to address the local education needs and issues that were forwarded by LGUs, and network them with private and civil society partners for programs that may be implemented in their localities. On this regard, the following points are important to be noted: 1. On a national policy level, ULAP recommends a strategic approach to pushing through with the reforms. This means that in terms of feasibility, short-term gains are easier to achieve when engaging national government agencies concerned. Meanwhile, revisions in national laws, for instance, the Local Government Code, require a medium to long-term approach because of political processes required to push for the advocacy. On this note, the recommendations can be broken down into as follows:
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PROCEEDINGS: LOCAL EDUCATION POLICY WORKSHOP 10 October 2013, Crowne Plaza Hotel Ortigas
LGC-related On Local School Boards: • Formalization of the amendments in the reconstitution of the LSB • Teacher hiring function of the LSB (if hiring and compensation is to be centralized in DepEd) On the SEF: • Recomputation of SEF for equitable distribution among LGU levels and income classifications
Agency-level On DepEd: • Restructured rules on hiring of teachers • Increased budget/counterpart for “supply issues” • Mandating transparency on MOOE spending and harmonized work dynamics with LGUs • Sharing/covering land titling expenses with provincial LGUs • Contextualization of the curriculum to local rural industries (fishery and agriculture) On DILG: • Hiring of non-teaching faculty in the SEF • Allowing other statutory and local funds/percentage of IRA to be used for education-related expenditure (with DBM/COA) • Development of “Seal of Education Champions” awards and incentives (with various stakeholders, and DepEd)
2. Meanwhile, with regard to the local policy recommendations, the focus seen is on the formulation and piloting of a roadmap to enhance and harmonize local DepEd and LGU dynamics. While further discussions and review is needed to formulate such roadmap, as far as the LGU consultations and the policy workshop are concerned, the following areas have been identified in terms of harmonization of the local workings on education. This is an updated version of the table presented in the consultation report, which plots LGU actions in correspondence to the DepEd SBMS elements: Leadership and Governance
Curriculum and Instruction
Accountability and Continuous Improvement
Functional, Expanded Local School Board Convergence of Local Dev’t Councils & Local Special Bodies Evidence-Informed Policy Making (KM, M&E)
Program Partnerships on Curriculum Development Capacity Building for Educators and Local Leaders
Achievement of Education Indicators; DILG and DepEd accountability metrics Reporting and Monitoring of SEF and local DepEd funds
Management of Resources Annual Investment Plans & Budget (Provincial, City, Municipal, Brgy) Resource mobilization; SEF Augmentation [and guidelines revisions] Infrastructure and technology investments
As of writing of this report, there are ongoing discussions with ULAP, CfC and DepEd as to what elements of the work dynamics may be addressed in the roadmap, and the preliminary plans are laid out for the piloting of the roadmap to be developed. 3. On the partnerships between LGUs and private and civil society partners, ULAP is continuing its convergence work and has, so far, identified these concrete programs for implementation with a number of LGUs:
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PROCEEDINGS: LOCAL EDUCATION POLICY WORKSHOP 10 October 2013, Crowne Plaza Hotel Ortigas
a. Partnership of ULAP with Ayala Foundation Inc. on the expansion of its Text2Teach program to 22,000 schools from 2014-2016 b. Collaboration of ULAP with DepEd, DSWD, and Jollibee Group Foundation in the piloting of a feeding and nutrition program corresponding to the P1.08B fund allocated in the national budget to address “severely wasted” malnutrition cases in different areas in the Philippines, for implementation in 2014 c. Collaboration of ULAP with DILG on the guidelines for the enhanced functionality of Local Special Bodies (the Local School Board, included), and the revision of the guidelines of the SEF d. Collaboration of ULAP with its Coalitions on health (162 to 52 Coalition on Accelerating Collective Action to Address Maternal and Child Health), and migration (Pinoy Worldwide Initiative on Investment, Savings, and Entrepreneurship), to address the relationship of education with other local government service delivery areas
[IN SUCCEEDING PAGES] ANNEX A: FULL REPORT OF CONSULTATIONS WITH LOCAL GOVERNMENTS ON NEEDS AND ISSUES ON LOCAL EDUCATION GOVERNANCE AND SERVICE DELIVERY
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