TUBA, Benguet – The municipal government was a recipient of the Synergeia Foundation’s Seal of Good Education Governance (SGEG) with the Department of Education (DepEd) following the town’s outstanding performance in terms of enhancing the basic education sector in the locality over the past several years.
According to their website, the Synergeia Foundation is a coalition of individuals, institutions, and organizations who work to improve the quality of basic education in the Philippines.
Councilor Jerome Palaoag, Chairman of the Municipal Council Committee on Education, said the municipality excelled in three parts of the award’s criteria because of the overwhelming support provided by the local government and concerned private and public stakeholders to enhance the delivery of basic education in the municipality.
Palaoag revealed that the passing average of the students enrolled in the different schools in the municipality was 94% in the conduct of the National Achievement Test, compared to the national average of only 66%.
On the other hand pupils enrolled in Grade I and were able to finish Grade VI in the municipality was pegged at 92%, much higher than the national average of 70%.
Further, Tuba recorded a single digit on the percentage of non-readers in the locality, which was at 8% and much lower than the national average of 15%.
Tuba was one of the 24 adjudged awardees for the SGEG selected from the 245 local governments nominated. The prestigious award is given annually to top performing local governments based on their improvement of the state of basic education in their localities.
“We are proud of the significant accomplishments of our education stakeholders in collaborating for the sustained improvement of the status of education in our municipality. We hope that the award will serve as an inspiration for everyone to sustain the gains of the towns’ education sector in the years to come,” Councilor Palaoag stressed.
The local legislator disclosed the municipality will be receiving a cash award of P1.3 million, which will be used to further improve the town’s basic education sector for the benefit of the present and future generations of Tuba residents.
Mayor Ignacio Rivera commended those who collaborated to significantly improve the passing percentage of Tuba pupils in the NAT, the increase in the number of survivors enrolled in the basic education, and the decrease in the non-readers in the different parts of the municipality. The years of working together was to convince children to stay in school for them to achieve a higher level of education and to become productive citizens of the country in the future.
“Education is the best inheritance that parents could give their children that is why we appeal to the youth to learn to value the importance of education in providing them with a brighter future considering that it cannot be easily taken away from them,” Rivera stressed.
He encouraged parents and guardians to make sure that their children and wards will continue to be in school for them to acquire the needed skills and knowledge for them to become productive citizens of the country in the future and eventually contribute in the overall development of the country.
By HENT
