City, DepEd to collaborate for Gulayan sa Paaralan Program

THE 19th City Council during its regular session last Monday presided over by Vice Mayor Raineir Joaquin V. Uy enacted an ordinance authorizing Mayor Oscar S. Moreno to enter into and sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Education (DepEd)-City Schools Division of Cagayan de Oro.

The MoU covers the collaboration of the parties in the implementation of the “Gulayan sa Paaralan” program in identified school campuses of the city.

The partnership intends to encourage students to engage in agricultural activities in their school campuses through the said program. This involves the establishment of nursery farms where the students, with the city’s inputs and equipment, can embark on gardening activities that can create the student’s strong interest in the importance of agriculture as a source of livelihood and a component of food production.

Under the MoU, the DepEd shall identify projects recipients campus, provide a vacant lot to be allotted for agricultural infrastructures, and assign one agricultural teacher for each recipient campus as the focal person, among others.

For its part, the city shall provide agricultural infrastructures, facilities, inputs and equipment during the duration of the project.

It shall also give technical guidance through training in vegetable nursery management and agro-enterprise development and closely coordinate with the City Schools Division of Cagayan de Oro in project monitoring purposes, among others.

The legislation was reviewed and endorsed by the committees on education and on laws & rules respectively chaired by Councilors Suzette Magtajas-Daba and Ian Mark Q. Nacaya.