Focus Group Discussion on LLC for ESD in the Visayas region

CEBU CITY — Cebu Normal University (CNU) president, the much loved Dr. Ester Velasquez, warmly met us at the airport with her two College of Education professors Rustica Verzosa and Emma Songahid. They were our constant companions during the UNESCO LLCSD Focus Group Discussion (FGD) for the Visayas held at CNU two weeks ago.

Towards evening, we visited the major ASEAN Summit hotel site of Shangrila Mactan, where the UNESCO National Commission intends to showcase a live exhibit of the Pagsasarili Mothercraft functional literacy course. About 16 ASEAN and East Asian heads of state with their spouses can enjoy watching this innovative training of village parents in Grooming and Hygiene, Housekeeping, Maternal and Child Care, Cooking and Nutrition, which can be duplicated in their countries when UNESCO Paris approves the future UNESCO LLCSD.

This is the first of three FGDs that will be held for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, which I am conducting with our LLCSD Interim Director Dr. Juanita Guerrero, TWG head on LLP Dr. Ethel Valenzuela, UNESCO Education development officer Helen Balderama, LLCSD assistant Emmy Yanga and Education commissioners.

CNU, one of the oldest educational institutions in Cebu

Dr. "Es" is Cebu’s pride in education for the past 25 years, when she first became the principal of the prestigious Jesuit Sacred Heart School for Boys. Then, she started at CNU as the dean of the undergraduate department, after that she became the director of external affairs and now its president.

Cebu Normal University, one of the oldest educational institutions in Cebu, was established in 1902. It is one of seven national teacher-training institutions founded during the American governance of the Philippines. After the Philippine Normal University in Manila, CNU has the second largest number of enrollees – 14,000 in 11 campuses. The others are: Agusan Normal University, Iloilo Normal University, Isabela Normal University, Leyte Normal University and Quezon Normal University.

The present Cebu Normal University was established as Cebu Normal School, a branch of the Philippine Normal School. It became an independent institution in 1924, a chartered college in 1976, and a university in 1998. It has been offering courses in Nursing, Education, Public Administration and other academic programs relevant to the training of teachers, administrators, as well as employees of public and private entities.

It is also proud of its programs for differently-abled individuals, such as the Sign Language Functional Literacy for Parents, as well as the Teachers’ Summer Institute for Vision-Hearing Impaired where classes are conducted every Sunday for two hours. Their Center for Teacher Excellence is housed in a new building donated by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation. It was conceptualized, through the initiatives of CNU, City Savings Bank and the Coalition for Better Education, for pre-service and in-service teacher training to develop teachers’ competency.

ESD redefined by UNESCO DG Koichiro Matsuura

DESD or Decade of Education for Sustainable Development has been drawn from the global UNMDG (United Nation Millennium Development Goals) crusade to make the whole world economically self-sufficient. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan tasked UNESCO to activate it, thus reinforcing its 16-year old Education for All (EFA) for "sustainable development" program. Thus, UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura, based on the Draft Implementation Scheme for the UN DESD, submitted to the 172nd Session of the UNESCO Executive Board the definition of Education for Sustainable Development:

ESD prepares people of all walks of life to plan for, cope with, and find solutions for issues that threaten the sustainability of our planet: these issues come from the three spheres of sustainable development — environment, society and economy. Understanding these global issues of sustainability that affect individual nations and communities are at the heart of ESD.

Through Executive Order 483, the Philippine government has issued a national policy on DESD "establishing the UNESCO Lifelong Learning Center for Sustainable Development of the Philippines (UNESCO-LLCSD)" and "designating the Operation Brotherhood Montessori Center, Inc. as the national laboratory" for quality formal and non formal education.

The Philippine bid to be the UNESCO LLCSD in Asia and the Pacific

OB Montessori’s Pagsasarili teacher training curriculum with corresponding materials will help upgrade Basic Education for the Department of Education (DepEd), while its successful 25-year old professional high school will assist TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) to start skill apprenticeship early in the high school years and its Montessori Teacher Training program can link its innovations to CHED’s (Commission on Higher Education) teacher training colleges. At the moment, the National Laboratory is piloting the use of the World Heritage Manual (a Cosmic Social and Human Science Book) for public elementary and high school teachers of Region III.

The Philippine bid to be a second category Regional Center for the UNESCO Lifelong Learning Center for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific was officially presented in UNESCO Paris in 2005 by UNESCO National Commission Chairman and DFA Secretary Alberto Romulo. On the same year, a nationwide survey of lifelong learning programs (LLP) was conducted involving 110 institutions all over the Philippines.

What is Focus Group Discussion?

Focus Group Discussion means selecting a small group from a wider population (in this case, from our inventory list) and discussing its members’ opinions about a particular subject or area.

The objective of the UNESCO LLCSD FGD, therefore, is to focus on how our Asia Pacific LLCSD laboratory can assist all the schools and institutions surveyed with regards to their various LLESD programs. It will redirect the ESD ‘best practices’ along the standards of the UNESCO LLCSD. It is also necessary to emphasize the networking of the stakeholders of the community from the local government units, corporations, tourism agencies and schools. It will also explore possible budgetary support for the activities of the lifelong learning centers.

The results of these FGDs in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao will be useful for the defense of the proposal in the forthcoming Paris Executive Board spring session in April 2007.

How can the LLCSD help the Lifelong Learning Programs?

Most of the institutions surveyed, concerned with both formal and non-formal LLESD, have Early Childhood Education programs which can connect to our UNESCO LLCSD. The Center can ignite the dynamic projects of the schools and institutions included in the initial inventory list.

UNIVERSITY OF ST. LA SALLE BACOLOD Dean Dr. Marissa Quezon reported that their Bahay Pag-Asa is a prison cell for youth offenders, but does not exactly look like a prison cell. It is more of a home to the youth offenders aged 18 years and below, where they undergo schooling and skills training specifically on computer repair, food preparation, hair science, as well as basic subjects in English, Math and Science.

This can only be self-sufficient, if they can provide equipped carinderia or parlor and open it to the public who can avail of their services at an affordable cost. This would lead to financial sustainability to stabilize the project. But, what kind of education do they offer to this youth offenders? Is it for grade school, high school or multi-grade?

Dean Quezon also recounted that their Balayan Fisherfolk Project teaches the fisherfolks of Negros realistic livelihood projects in its coastal-marine environment in the three pilot barangays. This now covers seven coastal barangays in Cauayan, Negros Occidental with ten partner associations, two of which are women organizations.

For this project to be self-sustainable, they should have a fisherfolk association with linkages with the local government. The wives should be involved in the fish processing or salting as well as in selling these to the nearby markets. Fish conservation as well as processing and cooking should be included in the school curriculum as early as elementary school and high school.

Partnering with foreign countries

UNIVERSITY OF NEGROS OCCIDENTAL—RECOLETOS Community Development Director Fr. Antonio Limchaypo explained that their "Handumanan" project or "A Place to Remember" started with the adoption of Purok Katilingban of Barangay 39, a poor community in Bacolod City. The university funded hog-raising, "trisikad" transport, weekly medical services, tutorial and catechetical classes. A small multi-purpose community center was also built with the help of the Engineering students and teachers. This attracted donors to provide financial and technical assistance.

The Australian Government donated a concrete hollow block machine and a motorized concrete mixer. Then with a donation of a two-hectare lot, a two-storey health care building was constructed, fully equipped with medical facilities, school building for technical and vocational courses, as well as day care facilities. Major Spanish NGOs and government agencies, such as Manos Unidas, Gobierno Vasco and Gobierno de Navarra, also came to financially support the various components of the program.

Of SILLIMAN UNIVERSITY’s Community Extension Programme, Director Nichol Elman explained that the most popular is its Apo Reef island sanctuary where two-thirds of it is open to commercial fishing for the livelihood of the people, while a third is kept a buffer zone to conserve the reef and continue the propagation of marine life, such as fishes, corals, seaweeds, etc. Three years ago, I snorkeled at the coral reef guided by a local trained "police" diver. The island economy sustained by small hotels and rented scuba, snorkel gears has expanded to the whole town where tourists take the ferry boat. Meantime, Australia has helped set up their IT Center.

CHED REGIONAL OFFICE VII Director Enrique P. Grecia explained that in Cebu, ETEEAP (Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditation) has greatly helped Cebuanos who work in the Mactan Export Processing Zones since it recognizes, accredits and gives equivalencies to knowledge, skills, attitudes and values gained by individuals from relevant work. The Cebu Center for International Education also provides cross-border education, which links to United Kingdom’s University of Cambridge, etc. Consequently, there is a boom among Cebu’s Call Centers and has made the province a Center for Outsourcing.

TESDA PROVINCIAL OFFICE REGION VI Director Lorena Yunque reported that schools are supervised through the registration of TESDA programmes. For example, Polytechnic College in Lucena, Ilo-Ilo has paramedical courses including care-giving, health care services, institutional housekeeping and Elderly Health Care resulting in the mainstreaming of gender development. Modules for Entrepreneurship Training for Women, such as dressmaking, are developed to ensure self-sufficiency. Documentation is done in cooperation with the UP Women Resource Center and LGUs.

LEYTE STATE UNIVERSITY President Dr. Pacencia Milan reported that they have been training unemployed adults and out-of-school youths for livelihood. Agriculture training in abaca, rootcrops, and ornamental plant raising, as well as tissue culture, and coconut raising is done. They even manage macapuno production, which sells at P500 per jar.

Concluding the UNESCO LLCSD FGD before the end of the year

The UNESCO LLCSD Focus Group Discussion in Mindanao will be held at Cagayan de Oro City this Saturday, while the Luzon-NCR Focus Group Discussion will be at the Department of Foreign Affairs building in early December.

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