Unesco, DepEd partners in quality education

UNESCO ADG (Assistant Director General) Pierre Sane, the Social and Human Sciences (SHS) Sector chief from Paris headquarters, was impressed by the dynamism of the Philippine NatCom (National Commission) collaboration with the three agencies of DepEd, TESDA and CHED in promoting quality education.

Msgr. Sane was the guest speaker at the first international conference on UNESCO SHS Network on Women Studies and Gender Research  held on July 25-26, wherein Miriam College’s Women and Gender Institute (WAGI) was unanimously voted as the coordination institution among a facilitation group to delegate tasks on research and training.

Speaking at the UNESCO Media Breakfast Forum on Behavioral Transformation of Filipinos last July 27 at the Ristorante La Dolce Fontana, Greenhills, Msgr. Sane congratulated the NatCom SHS Committee, headed by its chairman Felice Sta. Maria, for working closely with DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus, particularly in its three major projects: the curriculum and textbook review on Social Studies and Health Education; inventory of “Schools of the People” whose committed principals have raised the quality of impoverished schools in inaccessible areas of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao; and the study of the adjustments of Filipino migrants in the world.

DepEd’s concerns have been raised to the Asia Pacific regional level as it joined the NatCom last July 19 in its Regional Coordination Meeting on Piloting the UNESCO Teacher Education Manual on HIV Prevention and Responses. Tested in Indonesia by the UNESCO Jakarta Regional office for Science in coordination with IDP Norway headed by Terje Watterdal, it is fully supported by the UN Theme Group on HIV AIDS headed by Ms. Suneeta Mukherje of the UNFPA. The team is made up of UN Resident Coordinator Nileema Noble, Dr. Nicholas Alipui (UNICEF), Jesus Macasil Jr. (ILO), Dr. Ma. Elena Borromeo (UNAIDS) and myself as NatCom secretary general. 

Meantime, the local pilot will involve DepEd Health & Nutrition director Thelma Santos and DepEd TEC (Teacher Education Council) executive Director Beatriz Torno, TESDA Executive director Ernesto Beltran, CHED chief Teoticia Taguibao and Margarita Ballesteros, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Philippine Normal University, University of the Philippines, and Philippine Women’s University.

Piloting the HIV-AIDS Teacher Training Manual is timely since the 2004-2006 review of public school health textbooks has been published by the NatCom SHS Committee. The review is contained in the book, The Health Curriculum in Philippine Basic Education. As early as 2000-2003, the SHS Committee has been reviewing all textbooks of public schools. Designed to help publishers do the Makabayan social studies curriculum initiated by former Education Secretary Raul Roco, this has resulted in four guide books.

Since the start of the project in mid-2004, the Health Textbook Project Review Team has been working in close coordination with DepEd, assisting the curriculum developers of the Department in the refinement, selection and inclusion of accurate, factual and up-to-date health content in the curriculum. 

Developments and discoveries in the health sciences happen so fast that teachers have to be constantly updated about these changes. Members of the Team have since been invited by the Department to serve as evaluators of textbooks in Health Education. They are highly qualified to do this as they are either physicians or health educators.