Searca conducts M&E for school edible landscaping in Rizal

AT least 11 schools in the province of Rizal underwent monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activity as part of the School Edible Landscaping for Entrepreneurship (SEL4E) Project of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca).

Searca director Glenn Gregorio said the M&E activity conducted aimed to evaluate the transfer and application of training through the participants' re-entry action plans, monitor project implementation progress and gather project updates from the schools.

Gregorio noted that among the post-training expectations from the participants was the establishment or improvement of their respective school gardens.

Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture team and school staff involved in the School Edible Landscaping for Entrepreneurship Project in Rizal province. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

«It is also expected that they re-echo their learnings to the school and community stakeholders and potentially integrate SEL4E concepts and principles into their lessons for the learners,» he added.

The schools visited were Baras Elementary School and Baras National High School in Baras; Tanay-Sampaloc Integrated National High School and Sampaloc Elementary School in Tanay; Tuna-Balibago High School Annex in Cardona; Bagumbong Elementary School in Jala-jala; Malaya Elementary School and Virgilio B. Melendrez Memorial Elementary School in Pililla; Tomas Claudio Memorial Elementary School and San Guillermo Elementary School in Morong; and Pantay Integrated National High School in Teresa.

Gregorio also noted that in August 2023 and January 2024, educators and officers from the participating schools were part of two training activities about food security, sustainable agriculture, school gardening and partnership-building, among others.

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Before the capacity-building activities, Searca also conducted a scoping activity in early 2023, which provided the basis for the M&E process of the 11 schools in seven municipalities in the province.

The M&E tool for the School-plus-Home Garden Cum Biodiversity Enhancement Enterprise or SHGBEE Project and SEL4E comprises various indicators and scoring