Twenty-two years ago, a program called Project Free was established in the City of Makati, which offers access to free education for all its residents.
The project is under a city-wide campaign called ARISE, which Mayor Jejomar Binay launched during his first term in office. Binay recalled, “It started in 1986 when I was appointed and ARISE stands for Action for Reform, Infrastructure, Social Services, and Education,” said Binay.
According to Elena Ruiz, Superintendent of Department of Education in Makati, Project Free stands for Free Relevant Excellent Education. “We see to it that students do not pay anything, and although they might pay some fees on organizations that they affiliate themselves with, it’s on voluntary basis,” stressed Ruiz.
According to Ruiz, under the project, they offer to some 80,000 students free school supplies, “We give each student, two sets of notebooks per subject, writing pads, pencils, ballpen, two sets of T-shirts and uniform materials, textbooks and workbooks.”
Ruiz added they also give bags and shoes to pre-school students and those who cannot afford to buy. They also offer free feeding program to indigent students and free bus service for students who live far from the school where they are enrolled in. “We spend something like P19 million for the feeding program, benefiting some 5,000 elementary school students,” she said.
Aside from all these, the project also covers the computerization of schools (complete with Internet connection and television set) and the maintenance of school facilities, buildings and grounds.
"Actually (all) the freebies, the computer are meant to enhance learning but the key factor to students’ learning outcome are the teachers. So that is what we are capitalizing on—motivating them, providing more training and giving them additional benefits,” explained Ruiz.
Currently, each teacher is given P2,000 allowance from the special education fund and the general fund of the city. Also under joint resource pool, Makati hired some 532 teachers to bridge the gap of teacher-student ratio.
Right now, over 85,000 public school students (with 6,000, 30,000 and 50,000 coming from pre-school, elementary and high school) in Makati are enjoying the benefits of Project Free.
“If it can happen in Makati, it can (also) happen in other cities or even municipalities,” noted Ruiz. “Maybe not in the same magnitude, but no matter how small the resources would be, if the money is properly managed, it can be done.”
Ruiz proposed a selective socialized screening to those who needed it most, “It’s a case to case basis, but the basic idea is to give the underprivileged the opportunity to pursue education, to help uplift their economic condition.”
Believing that education is a great social equalizer, Binay has further raised the quality of education by having a Dual Education system in the collegiate level.
“In Dual Education, there is a job matching component, wherein we ask private companies and various industries in Makati what kind of skills set are they looking for and we try to fill that demand,” shared Binay. “So in other words, students don’t need to look for a job upon graduation because the course that he/she will take already has a corresponding job post.”