Foreword

What is Bayanihang Eskwela? In the context of serious governance problems that confront the Philippine society today, the Bayanihang Eskwela is an example of an initiative that illustrates how citizens’ involvement can be made part of the solution. It presents an alternative course of action that can hopefully generate better attitudes towards public service and accountability, and restore relationships that were damaged by lack of trust and connection.

Bayanihang Eskwela brings the government closer to the citizens, and the citizens to the government. Even in specific items, such as school building construction projects, the impact of successful cooperation like this cannot be underestimated. The empowering effect of involvement on citizens, for instance, stirs new dynamism in the communities, which can mobilize collective efforts to solve big problems like corruption and poverty.

This is the message that the Ateneo School of Government hopes to impart through this booklet. It is a message of shared opportunity and responsibility to move the country forward. It is a message of optimism that builds on vital community experiences of participation in governance.

...building bridges for better governance

"We are grateful that the Ateneo School of Government has been actively involved in the monitoring of government performance. Due to massive resource requirements of maintaining a public education system of 42,000 elementary and secondary schools with close to half a million teachers for 18 million public school students, DepED endeavors to improve resource management at all levels of bureaucracy. This means improving our systems, reducing if not totally eliminating graft and corruption and implementing innovative solutions to the many problems we face in the basic education sector. This includes our deliberate effort to attract the private sector’s support for public education.

We therefore applaud G-Watch for this Bayanihang Eskwela initiative. As we welcome your efforts to build bridges for better governance, we invite you to join us in our efforts to improve the way we do things in the Department of Education. Hopefully, through our efforts and the efforts of all other stakeholders, we can provide quality education for all Filipinos."

...nurturing government and civil society collaboration

"I would like to commend G-Watch for initiating the Bayanihang Eskwela. Our engagement in the Bayanihang Eskwela has given good a impression on how a government agency and a civil society partner should work together. I have seen how organized the G-Watch was from the time we started our engagement until this moment. Our partnership with them is worth emulating not only because it is strong and sustained, but more importantly, because we share the same vision of delivering the facilities and services responsive to the needs of the Filipino people as far as the school building program is concerned.

We believe that we have already entered an era where the civil society participationin governance is an indispensable reality. We are greatly encouraged with our experience with G-Watch that we started to reach out to more possible civil society partners. We are committed in removing the firewalls that limit their participation in the monitoring of all our activities.”