The Literacy Coordinating Council (LCC) spearheaded the conduct of the Consultative Workshop on the Localization of LCC on December 10-13, 2019 held at the National Educators Academy of the Philippines (NEAP) Regional Office XII, General Santos City. This convergence was initiated to review the status of LGU implementation of DILG Memorandum Circular 2007-155 issued on November 26, 2007 on the creation or strengthening of Local LCCs. Moreover, this initiative is a follow through of the agreements made during the last Midyear Performance Assessment on the review of LCC Localization Guidelines for possible policy development recommendation. Regarding this, the activity aimed to a) share good practices on the creation and strengthening of local LCCs; b) identify strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results of local LCCs; and c) develop draft policy recommendations on the localization of LCC.
Dr. Allan G. Farnazo, Regional Director of DepEd Region XII, noted during his welcome message the importance of proper calamity response to reduce casualties and the need to disseminate information on disaster preparedness. Assistant Secretary for Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Alma Ruby C. Torio shared in her remarks the Philippines’ low status on the world’s basic education standards, particularly on the students’ poor comprehension levels. According to Asec. Torio, “our students cannot extrapolate what they have read”, saying that they can read but they cannot relate. She also presented the Curriculum and Instruction strand’s program called KITE to bridge the gap between quantity and quality education. The K-12 Curriculum Review and Update; Improvement of Learning Environment; Teacher Upskilling and Reskilling; and, Engagement of Stakeholders for Support and Collaboration are the quadrants of this program representing the pillars of Sulong EduKalidad which will respond to the rapidly-changing education landscape.
Selected Local Government Unit (LGU) representatives based on the National Literacy Awards (NLA) categories, shared their experiences onlocalization of LCCs and presented the profiles of their represented LGUs.Mr. Rosalito B. Libres of LGU Butuan City representedHighly Urbanized City; Mr. Sedfrey A. Dela Cruz of LGU Santiago City representedComponent/ Independent Component City; while Mr. Alexander C. Zambrano, Jr.of LGU San Francisco, Agusan del Sur represented 1st to 3rd Class Municipality.
Parallel workshop on the localization of LCC was also done to enable LGU representatives to share their existing LCC structure and functions; identify mechanisms needed, possible hindrances and their corresponding solutions in creating local LCC; and identify measures in sustaining local LCC.
Impressions on creating or strengthening localized LCC were also delivered by Mayor Johnny Rodulfo of LGU Bato, Catanduanes and Mr. Sedrey A. Dela Cruz of LGU Santiago City, Isabela. Ms. Susan M. Carandang, Supervising Economic Development Specialist of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), concluded the consultative workshop with a gratitude message and ways forward or actions to be done for the establishment or strengthening of local LCC.
This activity was carried out as a first step in establishing or strengthening local LCC as a function of the Council, pursuant to Section 9.7 of Republic Act 10122 stating that LCC shall have the power and function to “propose measures on how to organize and strengthen support structures for literacy at the regional, provincial, city, municipal, and barangay levels.”
