Not Alone: Addressing Education Problems in the Community Together
By Jimmy Sanday Clemente
I am Jimmy Sanday Clemente, 57, a proud Teduray, and an educator for 25 years. I am currently the principal of Don F. Blanco Sr. Elementary School in Barangay Kinitaan, Municipality of Upi, Maguindanao. In my years of service, I have dealt with various learning problems of our students, especially among Indigenous Peoples (IP) children.
Some of the challenges our school has been facing are low attendance, low participation, and low performance of our learners, including a lack of support from community members. Most people do not know about these problems but these have been plaguing my community for years.
I struggle to think of effective ways to address these problems. Admittedly, I sometimes feel helpless and I wonder if I am a failure as a leader. Being the school head, I am expected to find solutions to any problem.
One day, in July 2020, I received an invitation to a barangay-wide stakeholder’s community consultation on education by Teduray Day School Project (TDSP) Drop-Out Prevention Project, implemented through the Responsive Innovation Fund (RIF) of the Education Pathways to Peace in Mindanao (Pathways) Program supported by the Australian Government.
The TDSP explained to us that the project is a participatory action research that aims to understand the underlying causes of the dropout problem in the community.
It was a rare opportunity for each of us to share how we felt about the problem in the village. Thus, each participant was given the opportunity to speak and be listened to. One by one, parents and barangay leaders voiced their concerns about the problems that affect our community.
The consultation allowed honest conversation between and among education stakeholders of the community. Parents and education stakeholders raised issues such as the lack of school facilities and learning materials; long distance from home to school; malnourishment and the lack of nutritious food intake among children, child labour, early marriage among IP children, bullying, and the interest to go to school. It was difficult to hear, but it is important that these problems were brought to light.
However, as the sharing continued, I realized that I was not alone in the community’s learning crisis. Listening to each participant’s accounts helped me realize that the barangay leaders and parents were also concerned about the education problems of our children. There was such joy in my heart after realizing that there was a possibility that we could collectively deal with our predicament.
Feeling empowered, I then suggested to our barangay captain to enact an ordinance to support the dropout prevention initiative. In the ordinance, there will be specific provisions that penalize parents for not sending their children to school. For instance, the second offence will entail a PHP 500 fine plus a counselling session with both the child and his parents. The third offence will fine parents PHP 1000 and subject parents to another round of counselling. The ordinance aims to increase the participation rate of children at school, increase the transition rate, prevent child labour, and decrease the dropout rate among children.
The barangay council listened and gladly accepted my suggestion and they promised to work it out as soon as possible. The barangay chairperson was also positive that through strict enforcement of the ordinance, it is possible to curb the drop-out problem among children and gradually improve education services in our barangay. I felt invigorated and unburdened because we have a response to one of the education problems in our community.
Three weeks after the consultation, the Barangay captain told me that the ordinance to support the dropout prevention initiative is now in the first reading and has been titled “An ordinance requiring all school-aged children to attend school” (Ordinance №2021–08). In just a month, the proposed ordinance has already been approved. The people of Barangay Kinitaan positively accepted the ordinance after the public hearing made by the council. After the ordinance’s implementation, I saw an increase in the number of parents who are getting learning modules from our school and students who comply with school requirements.
The consultation led by the TDSP became an opportunity to discuss important issues felt by the community. It helped strengthen the partnership between the barangay local government and our school to improve education programs and services. Aside from the education ordinance, the Barangay and local government of Upi also provided financial assistance to children from kindergarten to grade six for their tuition fees to ensure that parents will really send their children to school.
On a personal level, the consultation has changed my perception of the community in relation to the problem of learners dropping out and other education problems. Teachers don’t have to carry the weight since the whole village is willing to help out. I realize that my aspirations to improve the education services in my community are now slowly becoming a reality. When I step down and retire from my teaching career, I can honestly say I tried to make a difference for the better.
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TDSP’s Drop-Out Prevention Project was made possible through the Responsive Innovation Fund (RIF) of the Education Pathways to Peace in Mindanao (Pathways) Project supported by the Australian Government in partnership with the Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education (MBHTE) of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and the Department of Education (DepEd).
A nine-year program that started in 2017, Pathways is a Philippine-Australia partnership supporting quality inclusive K-3 education for all children in the Bangsamoro.