Philippine Business Magazine: Volume 8 No.2 - Corporate Citizenship
Painting the Outskirts Red
Coca-Cola’s Little Red Schoolhouses give remote areas a better shot at education
By Ana Maureen P. Macaraig

Quality education has always been one of the main concerns of the Philippine education system. If the lack of it is becoming more and more pronounced in the cities, then it will not be surprising to find a similar scenario in the rural areas, where educational infrastructure is lacking and the teachers just as scarce.

In these remote provinces, the scarcity in both infrastructures and teachers are so pronounced that a multi-grade system is recommended in order to leverage time and resources. Multi-grade classes combine students of different grade levels in one classroom who simultaneously hold classes based on the grade level they belong to.

Back in the 1980s, UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) came to the country to study the possibilities of a multi-grade system, specifically for areas where schools are rare and therefore cannot accommodate a big chunk of school-age children whose parents cannot afford to send them to school. Holding multi-grade classes proved to be less costly and thus, provide a wider access to education in the provinces. It has since been adopted in the countryside.

But even though the Education Department found in the multi-grade system a practical way of making education available in the outskirts, scarcity of teachers and infrastructure remain to be a big challenge. Here is where the Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines, together with the Coca-Cola Foundation (USA), found a worthy endeavor to help the public education system in the rural areas.

Birth of the School
In April 1998, the foundation launched the Coca-Cola Little Red Schoolhouse Project, a five-year undertaking that aims to establish 50 three-room schoolhouses nationwide, complete with facilities and furnishings. The project also provides training for teachers who are tasked to handle multi-grade classes. Beneficiary schools are selected from among a list of schools holding multi-grade classes. Those with the most urgent need for permanent structures and with a sizeable number of enrollments are the best candidates for the infrastructure donation. And to ensure the sustainability of multi-grade education in these areas, the Coca-Cola Foundation has been deeply involved in encouraging community members to organize themselves into an association that will undergo training through capability building activities in order to support the needs of the schools.

A typical Little Red Schoolhouse is a 165-square meter bungalow-type building with three rooms measuring 56 square meters each. Each schoolhouse is furnished with the necessary school equipment such as blackboards, teachers’ tables, and classroom chairs, as well as toilets with septic tanks and jalousie windows.

As of the year 2000, 20 schoolhouses had been constructed in several disadvantaged areas around the country. The project is targeting to complete 15 school buildings this year, and the remaining 15 in 2002. For the past three years, the project had also successfully trained around 500 community leaders to equip them with the skills necessary for the sustenance of the educational needs of their children, and the maintenance of the Little Red Schoolhouse infrastructures.

It is good to note that the Education Department is not a passive partner, with the Bureau of Elementary Education designing a series of training modules specifically for the project’s multi-grade teachers and coordinators. To date, two summer workshops have already been completed. On-site monitoring and evaluation visits are also regularly conducted by project coordinators to make sure that the buildings are well-maintained and the teaching method and class curriculum up-to-date.

Honorable Mention
With less than a year to go before its full completion, the Little Red Schoolhouse Project has already made a mark in the multi-level educational arena. In 1998, one beneficiary school became the National Elementary Achievement Test (NEAT) topnotcher among all multi-grade schools. Another school grabbed the No.3 ranking in district and division achievement tests (both in multi- and mono-grade schools). Also, one teacher trained under the program set by the Bureau of Elementary Education, became a regional winner in the 1st Search for Multi-Grade Teacher Achiever Awards in the year 2000.

Just as remarkable is the fact that the project was able to motivate the students, parents, teachers and other community members to initiate activities that will enhance the learning environment in the schools. School facilities have improved in terms of perimeter fencing and landscaping, and setting up of vegetable and herbal gardens. And with the help of the local government units in specific areas, additional electric power and water connections have been installed in the new schoolhouses. Parent-Teacher-Community Associations are more active than ever, setting up their own projects that would fund the development of the elementary multi-grade schools.

The Little Red Schoolhouse in Trento, Agusan del Norte is not red at all, but Coca-Cola gave kids in the locality a reason to party

Chipping in to further improve the Little Red Schoolhouse Project is the Children and Youth Foundation of the Philippines. The CYFP, through a separate grant from the Coca-Cola Foundation USA, gives priority to the environmental and health concerns of selected Little Red Schoolhouse communities. The Health and Eco-Scouts Program promotes environmental and health values and consciousness among students and community members through activities such as tree planting, vegetable gardening, and cleanliness campaigns. Also included in the program is the setting up of health clinics.

The Best So Far
There indeed is a limitation to the system being used in the suburbs, but the Little Red Schoolhouse Project tries to compensate by making the most out of available resources. However, despite the challenges faced by the Coca-Cola Foundation and their chosen communities, the Little Red Schoolhouse Project has achieved a certain level of success in terms of unifying efforts toward rural educational development in the elementary level. And with the consolidated efforts of the Coca-Cola Foundation, the Education Department, and the different beneficiary communities, an even stronger foundation has been formed – one that will ensure the continuous development of those small community elementary schools.

In a way, it can be said that what the Coca-Cola Foundation did was to teach people in the rural areas how to fish so that they could survive on their own, instead of just giving them fish to eat which would not last them a lifetime. And in a different sense as well, they have given these communities some reason to “paint the town red.”