Treñas dismayed over low NAT rating of city schools
City Mayor Jerry Treñas said the City Division of Schools must prioritize the quality of education it provides to the elementary and secondary students in the city. The quality of education must be on the top of the school administration's concern as the recent result of the National Achievement Test (NAT) showed Iloilo City's low rating.
In previous years, the City Division of Schools normally issued a statement on the performance of the different schools in the NAT. However, this year school officials opted not to make public the results.
Treñas said he will continue to extend support to the City Divisions of Schools despite the poor rating the city got in the recent NAT. One of the factors that contributed in NAT's low results is the participation of students in the yearly Dinagyang celebration.
The participating school-based tribes come from different public high schools in the city. As early as October, there are already schools preparing for the competitions. Because of this, the learning competitiveness of the students in Math, Science and English subjects are affected. Students devout more time in their practice rather than inside the classroom.
The city has several education programs to help the pupils and students in public schools. One of its initiatives is the 57/75 campaign. The 57/75 campaign is a national multi-sectoral campaign to reverse the education crisis towards system-wide performance improvements through a focused private sector intervention and community action.
The goal of the 57/75 campaign is to decrease the dropout rates, improve reading proficiencies and improve achievement rates. The 57/75 is implemented by the 57/75 National Consortium composed of the Ateneo Center for the Education Development, Foundation for Worldwide People Power, Synergia Foundation, League of Corporate Foundations, Philippine Business for Education and Philippine Business for Social Progress.
Under the 57/75 campaign, the national consortium will look for funds essential for the realization of their three goals. The funds will be spent in school feeding, workbooks in reading, math and science and same time re-align their existing program with the three goals of the consortium.