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32 BULACAN
Beyond Building Classrooms
Joint Systems Improvement in Education Project (Project JOSIE)
THE province of Bulacan has undertaken a massive program for
improving basic education. This initiative and its initial success shows
that educational reform must go beyond building classrooms and
providing textbooks. Above all, it must focus on teacher and pupil
competencies. And the challenge would have to be embraced by parents
and by the whole community.
From Nuts to NEAT
In the National Education Achievement Test (NEAT) in 1999, elementary
school children of Bulacan only achieved an average of 40.23% in English
and 39.4% in Mathematics. These scores were way below the national
average, and passing grade. This low performance worried parents,
teachers and local government officials. In 2000 Governor Josie de la
Cruz convened a multi-sectoral summit on education to assess the state
of basic education in the province. A masterplan was drawn up to improve
learning competencies of Grades 1 to 6 children in reading and
understanding, speaking and writing in English, and improve their skills
in solving mathematics problems.
Achievement
After three years’ performance, the children, as measured by their test
scores, progressively improved. From 40.23% in reading skills before
program implementation, the average score in 2003 rose to 76%. And
in Mathematics, the average score in computational skills rose from
118