2011 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize
Peace Management Literacy and Continuing Education through Night Market
Peace is a very fragile commodity. It can be shattered by an empty stomach, by a wrong perception and understanding of event, by a person’s inadequacy to agee on a common goal. Tagum City, in its quest for peace has used education as a weapon in attaining its goals of literacy, cultural and economic understanding, and unity.
Several peace education initiatives and programs have been introduced by the Local Government over the past years. Programs are continually evolving on how to promote commitment to principles of peace, social justice and literacy for Tagumeños. Such commitment seeks to address the following problems: achievement of economic equity, upholding people’s rights, recognition of cultural integrity of Indigenous Peoples and protection of the environment. As such, Tagum City envisions functionally literate Tagumeños equipped with positive work attitude and sufficient entrepreneurial skills to enjoy quality living.
Years before 2004, night market vendors were already visible in the city. They posi-tioned themselves anywhere they like and left clutter of garbage.
With this scenario, the City Development Plan of Tagum identified literacy programs that would address the needs of the vendors. Policies and strategies were crafted to mainstream different programs and projects for livelihood as their basic rights while also maintaining respect of each other’s cultural roots and identity.
One of the programs conceptualized by Mayor Uy was the establishment of Tagum City Night Market which aims to give small and medium entrepreneurs the opportunity to earn more and sustain their businesses. Along with this, City Ordinance #141 s. 2004 known as the Night Market Ordinance was established for which it legalized the vendors’ businesses. This was reinforced by the passage of City Ordinance 223 s. 2006: “An Ordinance Adapting the Revised Code of Economic Enterprises of Tagum City.”
The establishment of the night market generates more employment and increases the revenue of the local government.
Through these ordinances, functional literacy programs were complemented. Series of trainings and seminars were provided by the CLCC to the vendors such as: Values Formation, Literacy Programs, Health Awareness Campaign and Orientation, Financial Literacy and Management, Solid Waste Management and Peace Education.
The influx of people from the different walks of life visiting the place at night time is an indication of a peaceful city where they can roam around without fearing for their lives. Specific Objectives:
The Local Government of Tagum City sees the importance of peace education and literacy programs through night market in achieving peaceful and orderly city. Specifically, it aims to:
- Generate additional revenues for the local government to support various programs and projects;
- open door of educational opportunities and employment of marginalized groups to pursue their dreams and maximize their potentials;
- Conduct trainings and seminars on entrepreneurial management, and other ltieracy skills of a more practical kind useful to the workers;
- Provide soft-loan package to sustain operations for the business to thrive;
- Intensify the efforts to restore ecological balance through good practices in proper garbage disposal and waste segregation;
- Generate employment from the Indigenous Peoples (IP’s), Muslims, women and youth where they can enjoy socioeconomic freedom;
- Extend support in maintaining peace and order in the city where children and people can live and develop their potentials free from chaos and danger;
- Conduct regular monitoring and evaluation for effective feedback mechanism in achieving the 2011 EFA goals; and
- Adopt responsive measures for sustainability and innovations.
Sustainability
To ensure the sustainability and stability of the Night Market where livelihood, entrepreneurial, and literacy programs are inheret, the City Government provided interventions like regular monitoring and supervision in all aspects; putting up of a tracking system for clientele’s literacy profile and developments; continuous and on the time funding support from the implementing agency; capability building in the form of training, orientation, re-orientation, and workshops; and information dissemination on policies and reforms.
It also forged partnerships with various agencies and organizations such as the Department of Labor which granted P500,000 for capability building, financial literacy for the nonformal learners, and additional financial assistance to entrepreneurs. This helped intensify not only the education of OSYs and interest of small entrepreneurs but strengthened their economic viability as well. Funding were also received from nongovernment organizations such the Rotary Club of Golden Laces, Tagum Cooperative, Inc., University of Mindanano Tagum Campus and other national line agencies like the Department of Education for their literacy programs and the Philippine National Police in keeping the study and work place safe and orderly.
It could be said that from its conception, the management procedures undertaken in the implementation of this project has been expensively sustainable. It was mandated through a city ordinance, in partnership with non-government organizations whose mission and vision coincide with the principles of human development and the cultural practices of the people through economic enterprise and product-service patronizing. It is likewise governed by this catchphrase of the Mayor, “Kinsa man ang motabang sa Tagum kon dili kitang taga-Tagum” (Who else would help Tagum if not the Tagumeños themselves) which epitomizes every Tagumeño’s pride of his/her place.