PCIJ WebAlert #20.2008

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W H A T ' S N E W @ www.pcij.org
30.May.2008


---------------[ i Report Feature )------

2015 OR BUST?
Naga City's Class Act
by Alecks P. Pabico

IT is still more than a week before classes open in most schools, but
Naga City officials are already waiting for a report card of sorts. As
soon as all the enrollment figures are in for the Camarines Sur city’s
29 public elementary schools, it will be able to assess whether or not
the latest in its education innovations has made an impact — after
only just one year.

Used to getting awards and recognition for a variety of its
initiatives, Naga City was probably shocked when the National Economic
and Development Authority (NEDA) said it was in danger of not being
able to achieve universal primary education, one of the eight
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that the Philippines is committed
to meet by 2015. This was even though NEDA said the city had already
surpassed many of the other targets, which include eradicating
poverty, reducing malnutrition among children five years old and
below, reversing the incidence of malaria and other major diseases,
and ensuring access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

Naga, it seemed, had problems seeing students progress from one grade
level to the next. Moreover, far too little of its youth were
completing all the elementary grade levels.

Instead of fretting, however, Naga City kicked a new education program
into high gear. Called the Quality Universal Elementary Education in
Naga (QUEEN) initiative, the program aims to keep the children in
school in part by allocating funds for the miscellaneous and other
school fees that often become the deal-breaker for parents. At the
same time, parents are made to commit to ensure that their children
attend classes by promising not to make them work or engage in other
activities that would rob them of time that should be spent in school.

Although it sounds simple, it will be quite a feat if QUEEN succeeds
in its objectives. Then again, this is not the first time Naga has
introduced a program to push education, having concocted one
initiative after another toward education reform. That city officials
are also cognizant of their past failures in the sector helps, and it
could well be that Naga City — unlike many other cities and towns
across the Philippines — would end up meeting all the MDGs by the 2015
deadline.

We hope Naga City’s story inspires readers to check on how their own
local governments are doing with regard to achieving the MDGs.

Read on at http://pcij.org
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