003 THE ESSENCE OF EMPOWERMENT
We shouldn’t take the word empowerment lightly. It is, to us at least, a word that holds a particularly significant meaning in our quest for better schools and better educational services for our young.
Education reform, to us, can be achieved when we give the authority—the power really—to the schools, and to a great extent the teachers, to make meaningful reforms possible.
Yes, this is very much aligned with the concept of School Based Management, which we’ve promoted as far back as two decades ago.
What’s interesting then was that SBM was initiated at the top, by then Education Secretary Edilberto De Jesus and his team (I had the privilege of being part of the effort to promote SBM through what we called the Schools First Initiative, under De Jesus’ successor, Secretary Florencio Abad).
It had mixed reviews then. Despite the obvious logic behind SBM, there were many who refused to abandon their authority in favor of the schools. But even more so, it was difficult for so many school heads to share their authority with community stakeholders.
Just the same, we felt then that we were making inroads in school empowerment. This, of course, is mainly due to the strong empowerment stories we’ve gathered from all over the country, including the unforgettable achievements of the likes of Lope de Vega National High School in Northern Samar and, even more prominently, of Naga City (which helped propel their then mayor, the late Jesse Robredo, to national prominence).
Some very wise people would tell you that SBM was institutionalize through the education department’s BESRA, the Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda. Sadly, the essence of effective school based management was never adopted by the greater majority of schools that relied instead in the traditional memo culture of the education bureaucracy.
There’s so much more to say about SBM and why it should still be a key intervention in Philippine education (perhaps in a future installment).
Enough to say, for now, that SBM teaches us that what’s important is that reforms must happen at the school level—at least, the reforms that truly matter—and schools must be given the authority—the power—to institute these reforms themselves, based on their particular realities and needs (We’ve been saying that there is no one-size-fits-all solution).
If we want schools to improve, particularly in terms of the quality of teaching and learning they provide to their students, they should be empowered to do so.
It takes guts to think that way. Thankfully, we’ve seen some who have the confidence to empower themselves and claim the authority to chart their own destiny. And yes, we’ve seen great things happen in their schools.