As leaders in the field of education, we are entrusted with the great responsibility of ensuring that our schools are run efficiently and the students - all 20 million of them -- under our care get the best education the State can provide.

As leaders in the field of education, ours is the opportunity to ensure that our schools produce graduates who will become the country's indispensable workforce. From their ranks will also emerge the future leaders, decision-makers and the industry movers of the next generation.

Ladies and gentlemen:

Our ability to prepare our students and make them worthy of their future rests on our ability to provide them quality education today. And this is possible if we are able to create strong, self-sustaining schools. This, my fellow educators, is the reason why we are gathered here today.

At present, DepEd is going full throttle in its effort to decentralize education management - a strategy that is expected to improve the department's operating efficiency and upgrade education quality.

In line with this effort, we are now pushing for the implementation of the School-Based Management, a key component of the department's Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda or BESRA. BESRA is a widely-accepted reform initiative which recognizes that schools, as the key providers of education, should be able to continuously improve by being empowered to make informed and localized decisions based on their own unique needs.

SBM gives school heads and their teachers a wide berth to create linkage with the local government and the private sector and be able to tap them for the improvement of the local school.

The underlying principle in SBM is that the people directly involved and affected by school operations are the best persons to plan, manage and improve the school.

For us at DepEd, it is very important to create an environment where all the people involved in the decentralization process not only agree but also commit to make that change happen.

Together with correct decentralization policies, we must be able to strengthen all the stakeholders' capacity to perform their task under a decentralized set-up.

DepEd has already wrapped up a series of workshops participated in by key officials from the regions and the central office where the roles and functions at different levels were fleshed out in detail. The competencies necessary to perform these functions were likewise identified. These competencies will have to be developed professionally since decentralization is a change management initiative.

I must stress, though, that it is the role of the national, regional and division offices to make sure that all the necessary support structures are in place to aid the local stakeholders in managing their schools.

DepEd has the biggest manpower complement in the entire government bureaucracy with more than 500, 000 teaching and non-teaching personnel in 2,384 districts, 180 divisions in the country's 16 regions.

Our foreign-assisted projects have paved the way for experimentation and study of different decentralization models. The Third -Elementary Education Project (TEEP) and the Secondary Education Development and Improvement Project (SEDIP) have piloted various initiatives in 23 provinces towards improving DepEd's readiness for SBM.

Currently, only public secondary schools enjoy fiscal autonomy. This leaves elementary schools, which constitute the majority of public schools, dependent on mostly centralized management set-up.

Based on our experience at DepEd, TEEP has proven that given the correct policies and conditions, elementary schools can effectively implement and benefit from SBM.

SEDIP teamed up with the Regional Center for Educational Innovation and Technology of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization or SEAMEO-INNOTECH to implement the Decentralized Management Development Program, a six month program that aims specifically to address the issues hindering the full roll-out of decentralization in DepEd. The DMDP will approach decentralization from a broader perspective, thus rounding out the preparations for a wide-scale SBM roll-out.

Undersecretary for Finance and Administration Teodoro Sangil said that the inputs gathered from BESRA, TEEP, SEDIP, other FAPs, and most recently, SEAMEO-INNOTECH will propel complete decentralization.

Successful decentralization and SBM will not only make us more effective, they will produce the best results for the basic education sector in terms of learning and management.

As proven by many success stories here and abroad, an empowered school can undertake dramatic improvements by generating support from the community. And as school principals, you can take the lead in establishing a viable working relationship between your school and your community.

This of course requires a paradigm shift in the way you-as principals- view your role, especially insofar as your relationship with your community stakeholders is concerned. It requires a change in mindset that can translate into a change in the mindset of all your teachers as well.

Our principals are not just armchair, desk-bound principals. Hindi kayo basta bastang principal, kayo ang de-facto manager ng school at kaagapay nyo sina mayor at ang kanyang mga konsehal ganun din ang mga negosyante at mga lider sibiko ng bayan upang itaas ang antas ng ating mga eskwelahan. Our teachers are not just classroom teachers and content deliverers and therefore can only do so much. As I always say: most limitations are almost always self-imposed Ang ating mga guro ay hindi basta guro. Sila ang humuhubog sa mga future achievers ng bayan na ito.

To do this, our principals and our teachers need to develop their people skills, public relations skills and managerial skills. And this happens when our principals and teachers are given the opportunity to shine as empowered leaders and chief catalysts for change to happen in our schools.

This is what we hope to achieve with School-Based Management.

Through School-Based Management, we are setting into motion one seamless machinery wherein each key player-the school, the parents, the local government and the private sector- becomes one vital cog that enables the entire system to run smoothly.

What we are trying to unleash here, therefore, is nothing less than the principal's untapped power to inspire the community decision-makers and make them stakeholders to make quality education possible-and accessible to all.

Of course, you must realize that a lot of people are more than willing to help-some simply do not know how they could help and whom to approach.

Naniniwala ako na 'di tayo nauubusan ng mga taong may mabubuting kalooban na handang tumulong para sa bayan.

There are many kind-hearted souls out there who are aching to give back to society. Aside from the many philanthropists waiting in the wings, each school has their generous share of successful alumni who will be more than happy to give back to society a part of their success.

Aside from the obvious benefits it gives our schools in terms of resource generation, School-Based Management provides us with the opportunity to connect with the community- making each participant a truly engaged stakeholder, one who will want to make sure that the efforts he or she had made will not go to waste. In short, it makes the stakeholder more absorbed and involved in the local school.

My dear principals, reform starts with you- and it starts now.

You have been given the marching order to achieve meaningful and lasting reforms in your respective schools. You have been entrusted with the power to make change possible. Therefore, make positive change inevitable!

Maraming salamat at magandang araw po sa inyong lahat.

Speech delivered by DepEd Secretary Jesli A. Lapus at the Manila Public Elementary School Principals' Association(MAPESPA), Inc., February 20, 2008 at P. Gomez Elementary School, Sta. Cruz, Manila