STUDENT and youth groups urged the government to allow them to have a representative in Local School Boards.

“Save a seat for students in the local school board. The LSB is an important space where our government officials make decisions about us students, but we, students and stakeholders, have no reserved seat in the body,” Jedi Sarmiento, project coordinator of the Multiply-ED initiative and the E-Skwela Forum Series, said in their policy forum on March 23.

Student Council Alliance of the Philippines Chairperson Ken Gilo said that 4 out of 7 LSBs have no student representation.

“This is because the existing policy framework does not require student representation in the board,” Gilo said.

“We hope to change this. Students should be present in the identification of projects and formulation of the budget, as well as in implementation until monitoring and evaluation of programs that are meant to cater to us. Simply put: nothing about us, without us!” he added.

Meanwhile, Vicky Manlanque of Government Watch lamented that there is no sufficient budget to address all the needs of schools.

“The SEF of our local governments play a major role in augmenting these. These however are still not enough. We need to activate and strengthen the barangays and the SKs in promoting student engagement and supporting their education needs,” she said.