DepEd Ilocos Norte: A fresh new look

 By Leilanie G. Adriano

Staff reporter

LAOAG CITY—Employees and visitors going to the Ilocos Norte Schools Division Office (INSDO) in this city may feel a new vibe upon entering the old government compound with its refreshing look both inside and out.

Located at the heart of the city next to other national government agencies such as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Mariano Marcos State University-Laoag campus, vibrant colors of ornamental plants along a patio and a cactus garden greet visitors just beside a newly-established guard house where you have to log in in a blue book before you could make any transaction inside the building.

They also relocated an old grotto, left unattended in previous years, which is now more visible in its well-lit altar inside an open kiosk turned as a sanctuary for believers with offertory candles and fragrant flowers.

Inside the offices of the INSDO are comfortable lounge chairs with a touch of class for waiting visitors. They now also serve hot coffee or cold refreshments on special occasions. They also converted a portion of a parking area into a spacious canteen with wide open doors and clear windows. The clean rest rooms are now also more spacious with a giant mirror and a wash area which could accommodate three persons at a time.

Also discarded were piles of old cabinets and paper documents in exchange of more computers equipped with reliable internet connectivity.

“This is in connection with our quest for International Standardization Organization (ISO) certification quality management system,” said schools division superintendent Vilma Eda, who is on her 11^th month in the post; she replaced retired Araceli Pastor.

The ISO standards require an organization to enhance customer satisfaction through effective and efficient application of its system and processes.

“In management, we need to organize the physical set-up of the office and so with the processes that we follow as an organization,” Ms. Eda said as she underscored this would translate to a better quality of service to the schools, other government and non-government agencies that INSDO serves.

Ms. Eda said the on-going education transformation in the province is in line with the concerted efforts of all employees and schools covering the 21 towns and two cities of Ilocos Norte.

Of the more than 200 DepEd divisions in the country, Ilocos Norte aims to become the first division in Region 1 to be fully ISO-certified.