The City Council, during last Monday’s regular session, approved on first reading a proposed ordinance institutionalizing the Parent Academy program, defining its purpose and appropriating funds for the same.
Under the ordinance authored by Councilor Vladimir Cayabas, the Baguio City Parent Academy program intends to help and assist parents or guardians of learners enrolled in basic education be it in public or private schools, thus, institutionalizing the said program assures continues capacity building and enhancement programs for parents or guardians as substantial partners in education.
Though it is not a mandatory requirement for parents to undergo the same, the ordinance stated that making it as a regular education program would surely encourage them to avail of the same.
Among the objectives of the program include active engagement of parents to become empowered partners in the education of their children; enable parents to sustain their children’s intellectual growth and wellbeing; train parents to access valuable learning resources to effectively support the studies of their children; encourage parents to pursue life-long learning for themselves to be more effective education partners and promote supportive learning environment for parents and for other education stakeholders. The ordinance created the Baguio City Parent Academy program committee which will be composed of the Schools Division Superintendent as the Chairperson to be co-chaired by the president of the Federation of Parents-Teachers Association and the Chairperson of the Committee on Education, representative from public school heads, representative from private school heads, representative from School Governance Council and representative from an accredited civil society organization whose advocacy is on education.
The functions of the said committee include formulation and approval of the guidelines, systems and mechanics for the implementation of the academy program; regularly update and report on the progress of the program and its impact to the Local School Board; conduct assessment about the bearing of the program and submit its recommendations to the LSB; encourage all education stakeholders to actively partake and support the program and perform such other related functions for the full realization of the measure.
The ordinance tasked the City Schools Division of the Department of Education to be the lead department in the implementation of the program and provide regular updates and regular progress reports to the committee.
The ordinance mandated the annual appropriation of P500,000 which will be charged against the city’s special education fund subject to the regular accounting rules and regulations for the realization of the program.
The ordinance clarified that the funding will be primarily for collaborative meetings, program vetting and assessment, consultations, training of parents and honorarium for resource persons.
