The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) website features the Municipal Literacy Coordinating Council (MLCC) of Agoo, La Union, an “innovative and all-inclusive project” that won one of this year’s UNESCO Confucius Prizes for Literacy.

The project accords everyone in the region a chance “to become literate” and be a contributing member of his/her community by upgrading the skills he/she has an inclination for.

The education and training opportunities provided include childcare, hygiene, and prevention of infectious diseases; capability building for farmers that enable them to increase yield and household income; computer literacy for teachers and municipal workers; income-generating programs that cover everything from welding to therapeutic massage to indigenous crafts. Many of the programs are conducted in the four Community Learning Centers that serve the region, while activities in the summer day-schools for younger children are held under trees.

To complement these and make sure that everyone is reached, the services of travelling teachers and mobile libraries are made available. Highly commended in the literacy initiative is the “exemplary mix of funding that provides for the sustainability of the project.” Local, provincial, and national government agencies provide half of the funding, a dozen non-government organizations provide the other 25 percent, donors account for 20 percent, and the private sector shoulders five percent.

Envisioned to be a holistic program, the initiative covers the six learning strands within the Accreditation and Equivalency Sub-Program, namely communication skills, critical thinking and problem-solving, sustainable use of resources and productivity, self-development, a sense of community, and expanding one’s world vision. Recognizing that literacy is part of the continuing education and lifelong learning, the program encompasses fishermen, homemakers, pre-schoolers, dropouts, teachers, municipal workers, regardless of age and social status.

The MLCC’s Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning Programme has been able to serve the region’s 49 barangays and villages. Through a structured literacy and post-literacy program and scholarships for the bright children who come from economically disadvantaged families, the MLCC has considerably reduced the illiteracy rate in the region.

We congratulate the Municipality Literacy Coordinating Council of Agoo, La Union, led by Mayor Sandra Y. Eriquel, MD, for winning a UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy and for making a big difference in the lives of their constituents and the region. We wish them success in all their endeavors.