ARE awards so important in an organization? For those who aim to increase their credibility, performance, and morale, an award is an important factor. For those who believe they have all the potential, an award becomes an affirmation. But for those who lack confidence, the award would be a piece of luck.
In the Department of Education (DepEd), awards are an affirmation of credibility and performance. They only do not come in the form of motivation but each award signifies excellence.
When excellence becomes the byword, everybody just wants to excel. And this is what’s happening now at the start of the year in DepEd.
The Department of Education launched the 2020-2021 Secretary’s Award for Excellence in Curriculum and Instruction. This is to recognize and reward those who make authentic learning happen in the lives of the learners and those who innovate in managing the delivery of instruction at this time of pandemic.
The Top 5 of the 18 categories were named as nominees and Davao Region garnered 12 nominations out of 90. This is more than 10 percent, considering that all the regions in the country participated.
The categories are Most Learning-Focused Public Elementary School Kindergarten to Grade 3 and Grade 4 to Grade 6, Most Learning-Focused Junior High School and Senior High School for small, medium, large, and very large school, Most Learning Focused Alternative Learning System Community Learning Center, Most Learning Focused Schools Division Office, and Most Learning Focused Regional Office.
Davao Region belonged to the Top 5 in almost all these categories. But what really made Davao Region excel?
With the many innovations done by the region, one that stood relevantly is the institutionalized reading programs in the 11 schools divisions where learners’ reading proficiency, academic performance, and learning outcomes were greatly achieved.
Teachers have assessed all the reading competencies of children and they have identified those who needed immediate intervention. With the help of parents, teachers take extra miles to implement more reading programs. Some would personally reach out to the learners to give them first-hand interventions.
The region also produced a great number of locally developed contextualized learning materials. This way, the learners can easily relate and connect to the lessons. This is also a good way for teachers to connect concepts to real-life situations.
The generated resources in the Brigada Eskwela, a yearly program anchored on volunteerism, reached 1.3 billion in 2021 in Davao Region compared to 460 million in 2020.
The comprehensive implementation of research programs has also helped the department find the right course of actions and programs for the learners and teachers.
All these were consistently done in the middle of all the challenges faced by the education sector. As Regional Director Allan G. Farnazo puts it, resilience is style that fortifies character. The best of times is seen when an organization is put to a great test. And they do something about it.
The validation was already done, and DepEd Davao Region is waiting for the final verdict to be announced anytime. All the regions in the country may have their unique programs and projects, but Davao Region will never be left unnoticed.