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Understanding the Vital Years for Future Learning

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“We all need to work together to unlock the powers of the vital years from 0 to 6. Waiting for our young children to come to school for Grade One at the age of six may be too late!” These were the words of Secretary Teresa Aquino-Oreta, chair of the Philippines Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Council during a policy forum involving education ministers of Southeast Asia late in January this year.

The forum, dubbed “Understanding the Vital Years for Future Learning,” served as an eye-opener in the ever growing need to strengthen policies concerning early childhood education. Conducted during the 45th SEAMEO Council Conference in Cebu, Philippines, the forum zeroed in on the importance of tapping the learning potentials of children in their early years. Likewise, it sought to get commitments from education officials to put premium on their ECCD programs, which receive less than 10% of budget allocation in many countries as studies revealed.

Among those present during the forum were Ministers of Education of SEAMEO member countries, as well as education officials and representatives from SEAMEO associate member countries Australia, Spain, and New Zealand.

Secretary Aquino-Oreta, in her paper, recounted the Philippines’ experiences in adopting ECCD as a national priority. She said the country had a “long journey” towards this direction as efforts to promote children’s welfare and enhance their opportunities began as early as 1974 with the passage of the Child and Youth Welfare Code. The Code led to the creation of the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) whose mandate was later transferred to the Department of Social Welfare.

In 2009, the CWC was transformed into the Early Childhood Care and Development Council through Executive Order No. 778. The ECCD Council is now mandated to “support the implementation of the full range of health, nutrition, early education, and social services programs that provide for the basic holistic needs of young children from birth to age six and to promote their optimum growth and development.”

In the past decades, many ECCD laws and executive orders were promulgated. However, implementing such laws became a challenge; and this was mainly due to lack of available information, if not for the often inaccurate, dated, and limited data that offer little value. The ECCD Council immediately worked on creating a database that will serve as guide for a more efficient and effective implementation of the national policies on ECCD. Aside from this, the Council is also working with ECCD professionals and experts to design a learning framework for early education programs.

The stories shared by Secretary Aquino-Oreta and best practices presented by Dr. Claire McLachan, Associate Professor of Early Years Education in Massey University, New Zealand, served as springboards for discussion on the topic.

The Education Ministers agreed to pursue several courses of action, including the conduct of a regional policy research on ECCD. The Philippine Department of Education, as a proponent of the discussion, committed an initial funding of US$50,000 for the said project.

Source: SEAMEO INNOTECH, January 2010

Literacy at work at SIL

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Literacy continues to be a part of the work of the Summer Institute of Linguistics internationally and in the Philippines. SIL is pleased to be involved in literacy activities which touch the lives of adults, young people and children. Although the Philippines has a basic literacy rate of more than 88.5%, pockets of illiteracy remain. According to the Department of Education, there are more than one million pre-literates in the country and more than six million people are deemed to be functionally illiterate. Many of these are found among the indigenous cultural communities where SIL works in association with the Philippines Department of Education.

The languages spoken by a number of these communities have had no written tradition. Initial work involves linguistic research which leads to the development of an appropriate orthography for the language – an alphabet which is easily read and affords the student opportunity to use the skills they have learned in reading in the vernacular to transition to reading in other Philippine languages. SIL endeavors to serve these communities through literacy education – tailoring such education to the felt needs of the people using a learner centered, bottom-up approach. Our desire is that, beginning from initial literacy, the learner will develop a desire to maintain their reading and writing skills and that these will provide the basis for continuing education, benefiting the individual, the community in which he lives, and his nation. Learning is a lifelong process and some of the basic tools are reading, writing, and numeracy.

  • MALEI (Matigsalug Literacy Education Incorporated) oversees the on-going development of literacy and education among the Matigsalug Manobo of Davao del Norte and Bukidnon. SIL members helped facilitate the formation of this people’s organization. MALEI aims to include community education as part of their on-going programs for out-of-school youth and adults. Typically, this would include sessions on topics such as budgeting, leadership training and agricultural matters.
  • Under the umbrella of OMALRACDI (Obo Manobo Active Language Resource and Community Development Inc.), various activities take place in partnership with SIL. These include the promotion of literacy through equipping Manobos to become literacy teachers and supervisors. To date, more than eight Literacy Teacher Institutes have been held in Manobo communities, taught by Manobos. OMALRACDI also facilitates health care education programs through primary health care classes taught by a Manobo midwife.
  • Among the Tagakaulo Kalagan speakers of Sarangani Province and Davao del Sur in association with the Department of Education Bureaus of Elementary Education and Alternative Learning Systems. Beginning in the barangay of Lutay, an area which formerly has had neither formal school for children nor non-formal classes for adults, a program for children has begun where basic reading and writing lesson materials are constructed first in the mother tongue of the students, bridging into Filipino and English. SIL members are very active in this area and the program is spreading to a number of Tagakaulo speaking areas.

Source: SIL Philippines

Literacy at work at SIL

RESOURCES

 CALENDAR 

Literacy continues to be a part of the work of the Summer Institute of Linguistics internationally and in the Philippines. SIL is pleased to be involved in literacy activities which touch the lives of adults, young people and children. Although the Philippines has a basic literacy rate of more than 88.5%, pockets of illiteracy remain. According to the Department of Education, there are more than one million pre-literates in the country and more than six million people are deemed to be functionally illiterate. Many of these are found among the indigenous cultural communities where SIL works in association with the Philippines Department of Education

The languages spoken by a number of these communities have had no written tradition. Initial work involves linguistic research which leads to the development of an appropriate orthography for the language – an alphabet which is easily read and affords the student opportunity to use the skills they have learned in reading in the vernacular to transition to reading in other Philippine languages. SIL endeavors to serve these communities through literacy education – tailoring such education to the felt needs of the people using a learner centered, bottom-up approach. Our desire is that, beginning from initial literacy, the learner will develop a desire to maintain their reading and writing skills and that these will provide the basis for continuing education, benefiting the individual, the community in which he lives, and his nation. Learning is a lifelong process and some of the basic tools are reading, writing, and numeracy.

  • MALEI (Matigsalug Literacy Education Incorporated) oversees the on-going development of literacy and education among the Matigsalug Manobo of Davao del Norte and Bukidnon. SIL members helped facilitate the formation of this people’s organization. MALEI aims to include community education as part of their on-going programs for out-of-school youth and adults. Typically, this would include sessions on topics such as budgeting, leadership training and agricultural matters.
  • Under the umbrella of OMALRACDI (Obo Manobo Active Language Resource and Community Development Inc.), various activities take place in partnership with SIL. These include the promotion of literacy through equipping Manobos to become literacy teachers and supervisors. To date, more than eight Literacy Teacher Institutes have been held in Manobo communities, taught by Manobos. OMALRACDI also facilitates health care education programs through primary health care classes taught by a Manobo midwife.
  • Among the Tagakaulo Kalagan speakers of Sarangani Province and Davao del Sur in association with the Department of Education Bureaus of Elementary Education and Alternative Learning Systems. Beginning in the barangay of Lutay, an area which formerly has had neither formal school for children nor non-formal classes for adults, a program for children has begun where basic reading and writing lesson materials are constructed first in the mother tongue of the students, bridging into Filipino and English. SIL members are very active in this area and the program is spreading to a number of Tagakaulo speaking areas.

Source: SIL Philippines

Gearing up Internet Literacy and Access for Students

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Gearing up Internet Literacy and Access for Students (GILAS) is a multi-sectoral initiative that is composed mainly of corporations and concerned nonprofit institutions that realize the need to invest in bridging the digital divide among the nation’s public high school students.

Filipino students learn under the most difficult of circumstances. The Philippine government budget for education is not enough to provide for adequate educational facilities and other learning resources. This is why only a handful of Filipino students are given the privilege of a college education, as only a small minority are able to afford one.

Meanwhile, the Internet is becoming increasingly important in our day-to-day activities, as it opens doors to a wealth of information and resources. Access to information has become a basic necessity, not a luxury. Companies have raised the bar for new hires, requiring proof of Internet literacy as part of the minimum qualifications. Sadly, the Philippine government remains heavily burdened by the task of improving on even more basic resource shortages in the educational system.

Today, public high school students hardly have any access to computers in their schools, thus suffering the risk of being ill equipped in a world that is gradually becoming more digital. The future of the nation lies in its ability to harness the potentials of its youth.

GILAS aims to provide Internet access to all public secondary school students in the Philippines, thus giving them an opportunity to a brighter future.

UNESCO Call for Nominations

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Officials of the Ministry of Education (MoE) of Nepal met with the head of the Literacy Coordinating Council Secretariat (LCC) in their visit to the Philippines recently. The visit is in line with Nepal MoE’s School Sector Reform Plan 2009-2015 which aims to improve equity and access, quality and relevance, and effeciency and effectiveness of education focusing at the school and community levels.

The Nepal Education Ministry officials were particularly interested to learn  how the Philippines has implemented decentralization in education, capacity development at the local level, and planning and resource mobilization at school and community levels.

After giving a short background about LCC as a policy-making body on literacy endeavors, its secretariat head Dr. Norma Salcedo acquainted the officials on the various literacy programs the LCC assists and some strategies the Council employs to enhance  literacy advocacy nationwide. She also gave information on the literacy rate of Filipinos, including other literacy programs the government promotes to improve the quality of education in the country that would eventually gain benefit for the Filipinos – children.youth, and adults alike.

The exchange, though short, proved meaningful to Nepal MoE officials. As they believe regional and international experience on educational reform provides immense opportunity for their country to learn from different sources and to adopt strategies in the course of their reform initiatives, they consider the Philippines as one that has a wide range of lessons and best examples in education reform initiaitves which could be instrumental for their senior management to learn from.

The Nepal Education Ministry delegates also met with other officials of the Department of Education including the Bureau of Secondary Education, National Educational Testing and Research Center, and Teacher Education Council.

By Analiza S. Dy
May 27, 2010

 

DepEd Undersecretary and LCC chairperson Rizalino D. Rivera led the launching of the radio program aired live over DXIM Radyo ng Bayan and witnessed by Atty. Carol Orias-de Ocampo, chief of staff of the office of Usec. Rivera; Dr. Norma L. Salcedo, head of the LCC Secretariat; Ms. Liza Cuisia from the Philippine Information Agency central office; officials of the Department of Education Region X; the Philippine Information Agency Region X team; representatives of the National Economic and Development Authority; Provincial Government of Misamis Oriental; Municipal Government of Salay; DXIM station manager Ditas Gualberto; and officials/representatives of barangays with the lowest literacy rate in the 5th and 6th class municipalities of the country.

With the Philippine Information Agency as project implementor, the Literasi para sa Kaunlaran radio program hopes to promote the policy thrusts, directions, and programs initiated by the Literacy Coordinating Council and underscore the importance of functional literacy in the empowerment of people and in poverty and hunger mitigation efforts. More importantly, the program seeks to serve as an instrument of functional literacy.

Through the radio program, LCC hopes to convince parent listeners on the importance of sending their children to school, formal or nonformal; and to encourage out of school youth and indigenous people to avail of nonformal school placements and assessment programs.

The once a week radio segment aired live over DXIM Radyo ng Bayan in Cagayan de Oro City every Thursday, 2:00-3:00 p.m. starting October 14, 2010 will run on air for a period of six months. The regular episodes will be hosted by Director Cabahug-Aguhob.

Delayed telecasts will be shown on PARASAT cable TV 29 in Cagayan de Oro City every Saturday at 5:30-7:30 p.m. and in other cable stations in the five provinces of Northern Mindanao: Bukidnon, Camiguin, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental, and Misamis Oriental including Marawi City.

Exchange Visit to the Philippines

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 CALENDAR 

Officials of the Ministry of Education (MoE) of Nepal met with the head of the Literacy Coordinating Council Secretariat (LCC) in their visit to the Philippines recently. The visit is in line with Nepal MoE’s School Sector Reform Plan 2009-2015 which aims to improve equity and access, quality and relevance, and effeciency and effectiveness of education focusing at the school and community levels.

The Nepal Education Ministry officials were particularly interested to learn  how the Philippines has implemented decentralization in education, capacity development at the local level, and planning and resource mobilization at school and community levels.

After giving a short background about LCC as a policy-making body on literacy endeavors, its secretariat head Dr. Norma Salcedo acquainted the officials on the various literacy programs the LCC assists and some strategies the Council employs to enhance  literacy advocacy nationwide. She also gave information on the literacy rate of Filipinos, including other literacy programs the government promotes to improve the quality of education in the country that would eventually gain benefit for the Filipinos – children.youth, and adults alike.

The exchange, though short, proved meaningful to Nepal MoE officials. As they believe regional and international experience on educational reform provides immense opportunity for their country to learn from different sources and to adopt strategies in the course of their reform initiatives, they consider the Philippines as one that has a wide range of lessons and best examples in education reform initiaitves which could be instrumental for their senior management to learn from.

The Nepal Education Ministry delegates also met with other officials of the Department of Education including the Bureau of Secondary Education, National Educational Testing and Research Center, and Teacher Education Council.

By Analiza S. Dy
May 27, 2010

Development of Five-Year Action Plan for the implementation of Belem Framework – copy

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The Literacy Coordinating Council hold the 2nd Workshop on the Development of Five-Year Action Plan for the implementation of Belem Framework on July 22, 2011 at Bulwagan ng Karunungan, Rizal Building I, DepEd Central Office, DepEd Complex, Meralco Avenue, Pasig City.

The Belém Framework for Action, the final document of the Sixth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI), was adopted on 4 December 2009 by UNESCO Member states. Philippines is one of the signatories to this International Treaty having recognized the fundamental role of adult learning and education.

The country believes that adults need to develop their abilities, enrich their knowledge, and improve their technical or professional qualifications or turn them in a new direction to meet their own needs and those of their society. Literacy is the most significant foundation upon which to build comprehensive, inclusive and integrated lifelong and life-wide learning for all young people and adults.

Given the magnitude of the global literacy challenge, the LCC deemed it vital to develop a national Adult Literacy Roadmap and/or a Plan of Action to support Adult Education and Lifelong Learning and to ensure that adult literacy rates are improved by all means possible by 2015.

LCC aimed to reconvene government agencies involved in adult education to:

  1. Gather think-tanks from the government agencies, non-government organizations, LCC members and partners involved in the education of young people and adults enables individuals, especially women, to draft concrete Plans of Action for 2011 to 2015 pursuant to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Education for All (EFA) and the UN agenda for sustainable human, social, economic, cultural and environmental development, including gender equality (CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action).
  2. Engage stakeholders in developing the Five-Year Philippine Plan of Policies and Action agenda aligned with the Belém Framework. The ideas and possible action points were generated during the first meeting and will be turned over to the Secretary of Education for presentation in several UNESCO forum and Board Meetings to be convened for this purpose.
  3. Finalize the LCC Adult Literacy and Lifelong Education Road Map with clear goals and deadlines to meet this challenge based on the critical assessments of progress made, obstacles encountered and weaknesses identified will be the final output of the workshop.

Development of Five-Year Action Plan for the implementation of Belem Framework

RESOURCES

 CALENDAR 

The Literacy Coordinating Council hold the 2nd Workshop on the Development of Five-Year Action Plan for the implementation of Belem Framework on July 22, 2011 at Bulwagan ng Karunungan, Rizal Building I, DepEd Central Office, DepEd Complex, Meralco Avenue, Pasig City.

The Belém Framework for Action, the final document of the Sixth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI), was adopted on 4 December 2009 by UNESCO Member states. Philippines is one of the signatories to this International Treaty having recognized the fundamental role of adult learning and education.

The country believes that adults need to develop their abilities, enrich their knowledge, and improve their technical or professional qualifications or turn them in a new direction to meet their own needs and those of their society. Literacy is the most significant foundation upon which to build comprehensive, inclusive and integrated lifelong and life-wide learning for all young people and adults.

Given the magnitude of the global literacy challenge, the LCC deemed it vital to develop a national Adult Literacy Roadmap and/or a Plan of Action to support Adult Education and Lifelong Learning and to ensure that adult literacy rates are improved by all means possible by 2015.

LCC aimed to reconvene government agencies involved in adult education to:

  1. Gather think-tanks from the government agencies, non-government organizations, LCC members and partners involved in the education of young people and adults enables individuals, especially women, to draft concrete Plans of Action for 2011 to 2015 pursuant to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Education for All (EFA) and the UN agenda for sustainable human, social, economic, cultural and environmental development, including gender equality (CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action).
  2. Engage stakeholders in developing the Five-Year Philippine Plan of Policies and Action agenda aligned with the Belém Framework. The ideas and possible action points were generated during the first meeting and will be turned over to the Secretary of Education for presentation in several UNESCO forum and Board Meetings to be convened for this purpose.
  3. Finalize the LCC Adult Literacy and Lifelong Education Road Map with clear goals and deadlines to meet this challenge based on the critical assessments of progress made, obstacles encountered and weaknesses identified will be the final output of the workshop.

Literacy Forum with Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), Local Government Units (LGUs) and other Stakeholders – copy

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RESOURCES:

September 26, 2017

Literacy Forum with Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), Local Government Units (LGUs) and other Stakeholders

The Literacy Coordinating Council hold a Literacy Forum with Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), Local Government Units (LGUs ) and other Stakeholders in Mindanao with a theme “Strengthening Partnership and Networking of Literacy Advocates” on June 1, 2011; 9:00 a.m. at the College of Law Building, Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) Zamboanga City.

The forum aimed to:

  • establish, strenthen and sustain linkage with NGOs, LGUs and other stakeholders involved in literacy work;
  • learn from good practices on literacy programs/community education and create opportunities for continuing and/or scaling them up through government-NGO collaboration;
  • map out current and emerging functional literacy/education needs that are not addressed and strategize on interventions to meet the gaps; and
  • create a synergy between the NGOs-POs, the government and the LCC where functional literacy/community education policies and actions are collectively planned, monitored and evaluated every year through the establishment or reactivation of local LCC bodies at different levels.

This is the fifth year the Literacy Coordinating Council (LCC) has hold its forum for NGOs, LGUs and other stakeholders. The Council has always found its dialogues with NGOs enriching and rewarding.

This year, The LCC, NGOs, LGUs and other stakeholders has work together for a common and noble cause-the universalization of literacy in our country.

The forum results in multi-dimensional cooperation – between communities, government, civil society and NGOs, the private sector, and individuals.

The five (5) previous events were conducted in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2009. The participants of the forum were the national government agencies; non-government agencies; local government units; leagues of provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangays; state colleges and universities; private organizations; and civil societies.

Literacy Forum with Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), Local Government Units (LGUs) and other Stakeholders

RESOURCES

 CALENDAR 

The Literacy Coordinating Council hold a Literacy Forum with Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), Local Government Units (LGUs ) and other Stakeholders in Mindanao with a theme “Strengthening Partnership and Networking of Literacy Advocates” on June 1, 2011; 9:00 a.m. at the College of Law Building, Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) Zamboanga City.

The forum aimed to:

  • establish, strenthen and sustain linkage with NGOs, LGUs and other stakeholders involved in literacy work;
  • learn from good practices on literacy programs/community education and create opportunities for continuing and/or scaling them up through government-NGO collaboration;
  • map out current and emerging functional literacy/education needs that are not addressed and strategize on interventions to meet the gaps; and
  • create a synergy between the NGOs-POs, the government and the LCC where functional literacy/community education policies and actions are collectively planned, monitored and evaluated every year through the establishment or reactivation of local LCC bodies at different levels.

This is the fifth year the Literacy Coordinating Council (LCC) has hold its forum for NGOs, LGUs and other stakeholders. The Council has always found its dialogues with NGOs enriching and rewarding.

This year, The LCC, NGOs, LGUs and other stakeholders has work together for a common and noble cause-the universalization of literacy in our country.

The forum results in multi-dimensional cooperation – between communities, government, civil society and NGOs, the private sector, and individuals.

The five (5) previous events were conducted in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2009. The participants of the forum were the national government agencies; non-government agencies; local government units; leagues of provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangays; state colleges and universities; private organizations; and civil societies.