Together we progress: Institutionalization and sustainability of education quality improvement over 12 years in the Philippines

• In Event: Getting there: Achieving scale and sustainability through long-term investment and a commitment to iterative, incremental growth

Proposal

EDC has been collaborating with the Government of the Philippines since 2006 is to improve quality and access to basic education and to provide alternative learning opportunities, including livelihood training, to out-of-school youth. This presentation will share results and lessons learned from two consecutive programs, generating a series of key principles for scale and sustainability of educational reforms.
The EQUALLS2 program focused on areas most affected by poverty and conflict in the Philippines (the ARMM and Regions 9 and 12 in Mindanao), focusing on improving both the quality of and access to basic education in grades 1-3 and programs that reintegrated out-of-school youth into the peaceful, productive economy. Through an innovative collaborative approach, including a Public Private Partnership between USAID, Petron Foundation, National Book Store Foundation, Brothers Brother and Microsoft Philippines, EQuALLS2 served close to 1,000 conflict-affected communities in Mindanao. The project’s ability to successfully implement education and youth development programs during some of the most challenging years of insecurity and conflict in Mindanao is demonstrated in large part by its achievement of targets that were set in 2006. Given the unanticipated level of violent conflict in areas served by the project, this was no small feat.
Lessons learned from EQUALLS2 informed EDC’s implementation of the USAID Basa Pilipinas (Read Philippines) program. Basa Pilipinas reached over 1.8 million students from Kindergarten to Grade 3, trained over 19,000 teachers and school heads and provided over 10 million units of teaching and learning materials (TLMs) to 3,000 public elementary schools in the Philippines. Five years of implementation led to notable improvements in students’ reading skills, particularly in Filipino, the national language and one of the official languages of instruction throughout the K-12 cycle. Basa-developed TLMs have been adopted by DepEd and scaled up to nationwide use, including being shared widely through the DepEd’s online Learning Resource Portal.
This presentation will address ways in which the following key factors have supported incremental scale and sustainability of education quality reforms in the Philippines:
• Building ownership and sustainability through DepEd’s active engagement and involvement in planning design and activities.
• System-wide engagement with DepEd from national to regional to division to school levels, facilitating flexible, efficient implementation and integration and alignment with DepEd priorities.
• The power of partnership built on trust and credibility, underscoring the shared goals and vision with the host government’s priority reforms.
• The importance of evidence. Substantial research, monitoring and evaluation activities to assess whether or not interventions were working for learners aligned well with the DepEd focus on evidence-based programming.
• No school left behind. Extending assistance to all schools in its partner divisions tested and demonstrated the relevance, applicability and scalability of interventions, and provided an equitable approach to supporting schools and learners regardless of their location and accessibility.

Author

• Ces Ochoa, Education Development Center (EDC)