The Ateneo de Manila University Political Science Department and the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) conducted a Lessons Learned Session and Round Table Discussion on Evidence-Informed Policymaking (EIPM) in Education on November 9, 2015 at the Faber Hall Conference Room, Ateneo de Manila University.
The event was attended by a total of 64 participants from the Ateneo, ULAP, project partner sites of Nueva Vizcaya and Samar (including the municipalities of Aritao, Bayombong, Villaverde, Calbiga, Motiong, and Pagsanghan), and representatives from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Central Office and the DILG-Local Government Academy (LGA). Among the attendees were ADMU School of Social Sciences Dean Fernando T. Aldaba, Ph.D., Mayor Ronelie Valtoribio of Villaverde, Vice Mayor Aldwin Langi of Motiong, Division Superintendent Dr. Gorgonio Diaz Jr. of DepEd Samar, Chief for SGOD Claire Menda of DepEd Samar, Division Superintendent Dr. Samuel Soliven of DepEd Nueva Vizcaya, and Engr. Edgardo Sabado of Nueva Vizcaya PPDO.
Through the LLS for the municipal project sites, locally elected officials, DepEd local officials, and planning officers shared their local strategies in applying EIPM in the implementation of their education programs. The representatives also noted how EIPM became applicable their planning and budgeting processes, forged stronger partnerships between the LGU and the local DepEd, and raised monitoring and evaluation into the consciousness of local stakeholders.
A panel on mainstreaming EIPM at the national level was also conducted alongside the lessons learned session of the implementers at the provincial level. Among the panelists were Sabado, Menda, Anne Candelaria Ph.D. of the ADMU Political Science Department, Dir. Manuel Gotis of the Bureau of Local Government Supervision of DILG, Girlie Zara (Chief of DILG Local Governance Performance Management Division), and Daphne Purnell (Chief of Research and Policy Development Division of the DILG- LGA). Through the joint panel, DILG identified avenues for EIPM operationalization in local and national governance. LGA also identified the need to capacitate local chief executives and human resources of the local government not only in gathering data but more importantly in translating and managing the data into a language that decision-makers and planners can understand and use as a basis of policymaking.
The Round Table Discussion was conducted as a capstone event of the project “Capacity Development for Evidence-Informed Education Policymaking in Sub-National Government Level in the Philippines” co-implemented by the Ateneo de Manila University Political Science Department and ULAP, through a grant support from UKAid and the International Network for the Availabil