CONTINUING IMPROVEMENT DEPED

DepEd,school
public
Australian
system
government advance
March 18, 2014

The Department of Education

The Department of Education (DepEd) and the Australian government
boosted public school systems in five regions through the Continuous
Improvement (CI) program, which aims to develop competencies through
trainings, workshops, and mentored hands-on implementation of projects.
The Philippines and the Australian government have been partners in
pushing for the educational agenda for the past 15 years. The Australian
government has been very much a part of many educational reforms in the
Aquino administration. I am certain that we would have not done and
accomplished so much without the help of the Australian government, said
Secretary of Education Armin Luistro in his keynote speech at the CI program
symposium at ACE Hotel, Monday.
Luistro added that the CI program was one of the new reforms that DepEd is
undertaking. DepEd has never been amiss in coming up with a 1001 things
to change for improvement for education, he said.
The CI program, launched in July 2013, was first implemented in five regions,
nine divisions, and 34 schools in the country by offering not just competency
building through trainings and workshops for educators but by providing
coaching for them. The five regions by which the program was pilot tested
were Regions III, IV-A, VII, VIII, and NCR.
The program focused in five major categories: (1) teaching Reading, (2)
teaching Mathematics, (3) managing waste and feeding program, (4)
managing class attendance, and (5) delivering remedial science and other
major subjects.
A closer look at the CI program
DepEd, together with school administrators and teachers from the 34 CI
program model schools, examined the process improvement and impact of
the said program on learners.
By practicing CI, I hope everyone learns that no one has a monopoly on
solutions. It takes the whole school to come up with solutions to our very own
problems, Undersecretary for Regional Operations Rizalino Rivera said. He
added that the CI program taught the teachers to acknowledge that there

was room for improvement and that there was no need to mask the data and
findings of the program.
Upon the review of the program among school participants, one of the key
learning points was that the CI program allowed them to better understand
the students learning requirements. The program not only provided
confidence in developing competencies strategies and different techniques
to apply for the needs of the learners who are at risk in Reading and
Mathematics but also served as a guide and tool for quality education among
the schools.
As a learner-centered program, CI improved student performance in terms of
Reading, Mathematics, Science and other major subjects, and class
attendance. The remedial program under CI provided an opportunity to
enhance the basic skills of students through innovations and new approaches
in teaching.
Nagsimula po ang CI program sa pagmamahal natin sa estudyante.
Nagsisimula ito sa puso at sa pagmamahal natin sa mga estudyante. Kung
mahal natin ang ating mga estudyante, gagawan talaga natin ng paraan
kahit ano pang balakid ang nasa harap natin, Rivera told the participants.
He added that DepEd and educators needed to scale the initiative up to
move forward for the benefit of the Filipino learners.
The CI program will be part of the new principals and superintendents
training that DepEd is preparing to institutionalize and the approach of
continuous improvement.
Hindi pa po tayo nagtatapos dito. Ito pa lang po ang simula, ang unang sibol
ng ating programa at ng ating hangaring tuluyang pagbutihin ang ating
gawain para sa ating mga kabataan, Rivera said.