'Schools First Initiative' program launched to improve education system

The government is appealing to the community and private sector to help realize government's goal for every Filipino child to receive quality education in a program dubbed 'Schools First Initiative.'

Dr. Catalina Credo, English supervisor of the Department of Education in the province reported in a recent Kapihan forum that Education Sec. Florencio Abad has come up with the Schools First Initiative program that would involve all sectors in the community in providing better quality education to public school students.

Credo explains that Sec. Abad has emphasized the said program “to give governing councils the authority and the power to help make sure that the rules and regulations and requirements in the schools are being followed in toto.”

She said the Schools First Initiative is timely with the impending conclusion of the Third Elementary Education Project in the province which is in its last stages of implementation before wrapping up at the end of this year.

The Schools First will sustain the schools-based management component of TEEP and implement it in all schools in the country.

Public schools principals are currently being trained to prepare them for school-based management and how to make the School First Initiative work, which takes 3 forms: participation of critical stakeholders, empowerment of government councils and accountable for results and resources.