The Department of Education (DepEd) Schools Division Office (SDO) of Capiz and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Advancing Basic Education (ABC+) launched the Education Sector Mechanism (ESM) to improve and strengthen the early grade learning in the province.
ABC+ Project System Strengthening Advisor Malcolm Garma underscored the need to address the issues, particularly the improvement of the kindergarten to Grade 3 (K-3) curriculum.
“The DepEd now is leaning towards the learning recovery, there is no other way to recover in basic education but to address the issues on the most basic issues in education and that is improving our learning outcomes in early literacy and numeracy,” Garma stated.
He also expressed his gratitude to the Capiz provincial government and SDO Capiz for participating and organizing the workshop for EMS in the province that provides opportunities to identify the issues and challenges of early-grade learning.
“I think with this accommodation, the province of Capiz and SDO Capiz are in the right direction in addressing learning loss by providing ideas on how we can recover from this,” Garma noted.
For his part, USAID Philippines Director of Education Dr. Thomas LeBlanc stated after almost four years of implementation, ABC+ has made significant progress towards helping DepEd achieve its goal of improving the learning outcomes of all Filipino children.
“As of August 2023, USAID has trained more than 62,000 educators on innovative strategies to address students’ learning gaps and we printed almost 27 million supplementary elementary early grade learning materials,” LeBlanc said.
“USAID recognizes that achieving sustainable solutions in the challenges of education requires close collaboration not only with the Department of Education but also with the local government and private sectors,” LeBlanc added.
Meanwhile, Gov. Fredenil Castro expressed his message of commitment to the ABC+ EMS.
“I am very interested in attending today’s event because I know that the target pupils of this program are those belonging to the primary. I am most touched because we have centered it on the analysis of problems that need to be addressed,” Gov. Castro added.
Further, Parents Teachers Association President lawyer Rexter Tupas expressed his unwavering support and commitment because he believes that investing in early-grade education will create a strong foundation for the children’s future success.
“To this, we pledge our resources, commitment, and dedication to collaborate with the DepEd and all the stakeholders. We can design and implement effective strategies, and allocate resources so no child is left behind,” Tupas reiterated.
