Safe Schools (Day 6)

Safe Schools (Day 6)

by Rey Laguda

(This is the DepEd USec Rey Laguda's Day 6 of 50-day journey being serialized here with his permission, culled from his Facebook account. - Blogger/owner)

Schools are at the heart of our communities, therefore we want to keep our schools safe from threats, be they human-induced or natural. It is our mandate to provide conditions where “students learn in a child-friendly, gender-sensitive, safe and motivating environment.”

The role of the Department of Education in disaster risk reduction has expanded in the last several years consistent with the evolution of the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) sector after the passage of RA 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010.

Unlocking Value for Schools through Budgets (Day 5)

Unlocking value for schools through Budgets (Day 5)

by Rey Laguda

(This is the DepEd USec Rey Laguda's Day 5 of 50-day journey being serialized here with his permission, culled from his Facebook account. - Blogger/owner)

Public schools are fully funded by the Department of Education for its basic requirements. But there is also support that schools get from local government units through the Special Education Fund (SEF) and through private donations from individuals and groups.

Capital Outlay for schools would normally include classrooms, furniture, water and sanitation facilities, science and math equipment, and computers among others. Learning materials are also provided on an annual basis. In addition to this, schools are also provided budgets which are used to cover Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE). These school budgets are based on a formula that was revised in 2013 to incorporate a fixed cost component and variable cost components based on enrollment, the number of teachers, classrooms, and graduating students to arrive at a total figure for the school. In total, education spending per capita increased from P8,816 to P19,753.

Going Online (Day 3)

Going Online (Day 3)

by Rey Laguda

(This is the DepEd USec Rey Laguda's Day 3 of 50-day journey being serialized here with his permission, culled from his Facebook account. - Blogger/owner)

Laguda

In 2010, social media was an important factor in the elections and the new administration intended to maximize the use of social media as a channel for effective mass communication and engagement. The Department of Education needed to take its communication and advocacy efforts to another level as well. Communication in a large organization with 700,000 employees spread over thousands of locations and with millions of external publics is a challenge. Traditionally, DepEd would communicate via traditional channels such as magazines and news dailies, interviews with tv, radio and print, and through events. A website was being maintained that was used mainly to post DepEd policy issuances. It was also funny that the website had such a busy look with so many organizational partner logos drowning out the DepEd brand.

Schools, Data and Fast food chains (Day 2)

Schools, Data and Fast food chains (Day 2)

by Rey Laguda

(This is the DepEd USec Rey Laguda's Day 2 of 50-day journey being serialized here with his permission, culled from his Facebook account. - Blogger/owner)

Not many know that we have around 48,000 public schools in the Philippines. These are all under the direct supervision of the Department of Education. How does one manage an organization this big? For a fast food chain, there would probably be point-of-sale (POS) machines that would track daily performance in terms of customer count, sales, product inventories, expenses, etc. Yet for DepEd, not all of our schools have electricity. Not all schools have access to Internet signals. And when we joined in 2010, not all schools had computers.

Laguda

During the first few weeks in DepEd, I was busy coordinating and getting data that the Presidential Management Staff needed in preparation for the first State of the Nation Address of the President. Sadly, the first data set that I got and transmitted was wrong and immediately, I got my first reprimand. Something I would never forget and resolved should not happen again. There were systemic issues that needed resolving.

The prevailing mode of data collection on schools was manual submission - schools submit an accomplished 7-page survey form to the divisions where it is encoded and then regions validate and consolidate before submitting to the Central Office for national consolidation. By the time national figures on enrollment were finalized, it would already be March/April of the following year. So every year would involve stacks and stacks of spreadsheets and hours and hours of hard work.

Children at the Heart (Day 1)

Children at the Heart (Day 1)

by Rey Laguda

(This is the DepEd USec Rey Laguda's Day 1 of 50-day journey being serialized here with his permission, culled from his Facebook account. - Blogger/owner)

The Filipino children are at the heart of what we do. It has always been like that and it will always be that way. This is easy to say but very difficult to implement because of the many threats that children face.

Laguda

It took a while to contextualize this in DepEd terms and we embarked on a process of redefining our vision, mission, and values. Like any organization, this sets the direction and defines the core reason of the Department, the Why of the Whys. There were many debates about this, which I don’t want to dig up anymore. But the point is, we wanted the bureaucracy to be learner-centered and to manifest this in its policies, programs, and projects.

Thinking of the 24 million learners under our wing, we then articulated DepEd’s Child Protection Policy in 2012, putting a premium on the well-being and safety of children. We want them to be free and protected from violence, exploitation, discrimination, and other forms of abuse.

Education USEC Rey Laguda's 50-Day Journey for a Graceful Exit

(The following accounts are culled from the Facebook account of USEC Rey Laguda with his due permission to this blogger to repost them here. These would be the series of DepEd activities in which he personally witnessed and in any way has contributed. - Blogger/owner)

I have 50 days until June 30 (51 days until July 1) in DepEd. It has been an unbelievable 6 years for me, my colleagues, and even for my family. I had joined government thinking of serving for only a year. I want to honor my time in government by sharing to the public what I feel we have accomplished or continue to pursue as part of the reforms in education and in the DepEd bureaucracy. I have always said that education reforms in DepEd are like teaching an elephant to dance...tinikling.

Laguda

So for the next 50 days, I will do daily posts of what the bureaucracy has done in the interest of transparency. This is a personal post and some of you may not agree with it. That's fine. That is one of the freedoms we have regained post-EDSA.

We are currently preparing transition reports and documents to hand over to the next administration and that will also be made public once it is done.

It has been a great privilege and honor to be on this journey towards a better nation. I believe that we cannot be great as a nation until we learn to be proud of our government (regardless of who sits as President). So I stand tall and I stand proud despite our imperfections and shortcomings as a public servant. The straight path isn't always the shortest and it isn't always the easiest. It is the best path nonetheless.