LGUs: The true engines of education reform

The Philippine education system is at a critical turning point. Faced with a learning crisis, the default response is often to look to the national government for sweeping mandates and top-down solutions. But as the findings of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) reveal, the most transformative, life-changing reforms are happening much closer to home. The battle for our children’s future will not be won solely in the halls of the Department of Education (DepEd) Central Office; it will be won in our barangays, municipalities, and provinces. Local government units (LGUs) are the true engines of education reform.

Unlike national agencies burdened by archipelago-wide logistical hurdles and diverse contexts to respond to, LGUs are intimately connected to the communities, families, and schools that they serve. They see classroom congestion, malnourished children, and the sacrifices of our teachers firsthand. When local chief executives place education at the center of their agenda rather than a peripheral mandate, the battle against stunting and illiteracy becomes winnable.

This is the case in the province of Iloilo, for example. Through a Proof of Concept initiative spearheaded by the Synergeia Foundation and Edcom 2 since 2023, 11 pilot areas demonstrated the immense power of decentralized, participatory governance. By strengthening local school boards, empowering communities to co-own the education problem, and institutionalizing performance-based budgeting, reading proficiencies soared. Grade 3 learners in these pilot schools scored an impressive 88 percent in literacy assessments, significantly outperforming control groups. In the municipality of Pavia alone, reading proficiency jumped from 67 percent to 82 percent. Iloilo proves that when communities are empowered to plan and act, learning outcomes follow.

In Norzagaray, Bulacan, local leadership proved that resource constraints are not a life sentence for learners. Through Project BRIGHT, the local government partnered with DepEd to tackle early-grade illiteracy head-on. The LGU didn’t just issue memos; they provided tangible support, including a P7,000 incentive for teachers running summer reading camps and a steady quarterly supply of literacy materials. The outcome? Norzagaray effectively eliminated illiteracy among its Grade 1 to 3 students, with 60.73 percent reading exactly at grade level—far exceeding the national average of 47.77 percent.

These critical wins go far beyond reading. Education begins long before a child steps into Kindergarten. In Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon, the LGU tackled the silent crisis of stunting—a condition that irreversibly impairs cognitive development. By creating permanent plantilla positions for nutrition officers and establishing the region’s first milk hub, they slashed stunting prevalence from 4 percent to a mere 2 percent in just two years. In Muntinlupa City, the LGU mobilized “Momshies Patrol” volunteers to seek out pregnant mothers and newborns to ensure they have access to proper nutrition. Meanwhile, Valenzuela City tackled inclusivity and congestion by building the country’s first locally funded special education center and launching the Education 360° Investment Program to map out multiyear infrastructure solutions.

These stories share a common thread: local leaders who refuse to accept the status quo. They recognize that schools cannot carry the burden of the learning crisis alone and that they share in the responsibility of seeing each learner succeed.

For decades, studies have lamented how our highly centralized education system has inadvertently sidelined local governments, reducing their roles to passive financiers fixing broken roofs or paying utility bills. That must change. The recent revision of the Special Education Fund guidelines by DepEd, the Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Budget and Management, and Department of Finance is a massive step forward, finally allowing LGUs to support early childhood care and nutrition, and supporting programs like ARAL.

In our Edcom 2, we have been cognizant of the irreplaceable role of LGUs in our education system’s turning point. This week, we launched an LGU Playbook, a toolkit that aims to help mayors, governors, councilors, and other local leaders take on projects to improve their local education landscapes. We have also provided 10 template ordinances (borrowing from many Galing Pook awardees for education) that they can use to initiate education reforms.

We have diagnosed the problems well, we know the solutions, and we have seen LGUs overcome stunting and illiteracy. But to win this battle effectively, we all need to come together and do what we can to contribute to the solutions. As we have seen in Iloilo, Norzagaray, Manolo Fortich, Muntinlupa, Valenzuela, and many others, the leadership of our mayors, governors, and barangay captains in pushing for genuine education reform, could spell the difference on whether we can this learning crisis sooner rather than later.

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Dr. Karol Mark Yee is the executive director of the Second Congressional Commission on Education.