Cagayan de Oro City has been named as one of the Top 18 finalists of the 2022 Galing Pook Awards where more than 190 entries from various local government units (LGUs) all over the country competed.

“This year’s set of finalists features a wide range of LGU programs that address the needs of Filipinos - agriculture, health, education, disaster risk reduction, peace and development, poverty alleviation, heritage and tourism, and digital governance. With the multiple challenges brought by the pandemic, climate change, and poverty, hopefully these promising programs could serve as models and inspiration for other LGUs nationwide,” says Georgina Hernandez Yang, Executive Director of the Galing Pook Foundation.

 

This year’s Galing Pook entry of the city, with its title, “Making Dreams Come True: Providing Accessible, Quality and Relevant Education in Cagayan de Oro,” focused on the holistic approach and innovations of the city government in improving the quality and standards of education in Cagayan de Oro, being the education center in Northern Mindanao.

 

In 2013, Child Development Centers (CDC) are underprovided as majority of the Child Development Teachers (CDTs) were untrained and un-accredited, and receiving only 2,400 monthly honorarium for the last 14 years.

Meanwhile, the city’s public elementary schools managed to have at least two or three shifts of classes due to classroom shortage. In the city’s upland barangays, children have to walk 10 kilometers or so a day just to attend school at a nearest available school campus.

 

The access to quality education in 2013 was deteriorating. The secondary level gross enrolment ratio was (GER) was at 84.19, while net enrolment ratio (NER) was at 61.62.

Cohort survival rate was 87.70. And addressing the classroom shortage was the primary mission of the new administration. Later, in school year 2020-2021, the secondary level GER rose to 106.14 while the NER for Grade 7-10 rose to 78.81.

 

Cohort survival rate increased to 91.79 for Grade 7-10. Current occupancy ratios are 1:39 for elementary; 1:34 junior high school and 1:33 for senior high school, Department of Education-Cagayan de Oro data showed.

However, not all high school graduates could enter college or university and the city government has to employ strategies for the transformation of education services in Cagayan de Oro.

 

The objectives of which are to provide expanded early childhood care, decongest the city’s elementary and high schools, provides technical-vocational training, support more students in the tertiary education level and enable teacher development.

 

City Councilor Suzette Magtajas-Daba, who chairs the City Council’s Education Committee; Assistant Schools Division Superintendent Dr. Alicia Anghay; City Information Officer Ivy Guantero and other members of the city delegation received the award from President Bongbong Marcos during awarding ceremony held last week at the Malacanang Palace. (ACM/CIO)