Empowering the community through the extension services of a teacher education institution in the Philippines

Abstract The quality of the extension services provided determines how effective extension systems are in accomplishing a sustainable development strategy. Hence, this research was carried out to ascertain the impact of extension services of the College of Teacher Education (CTE) of Nueva Vizcaya State University (NVSU), Philippines. The descriptive survey method was employed using a structured questionnaire that underwent expert validation. This questionnaire was administered among the implementers (n = 45) and beneficiaries (n = 200) of the extension services. Mean was used to describe the extent of engagement, the level of benefits derived, the extent of problems encountered, and the overall impact of CTE’s extension services. This study concludes that beneficiaries and implementers are deeply engaged in the College of Teacher Education’s Projects HELP and KKK, proving that extension initiatives attract both providers and consumers in high volumes. The adoptive college successfully managed its development programs such as Projects HELP and KKK, and extension participants benefitted immeasurably. Irregularity of consultations, difficulties in organizing residents, and incoherence in the monitoring and assessment of the college’s extension activities were recognized as minor issues in the conduct of extension services. Beneficiaries and implementers regarded the College of Teacher Education’s extension services as acceptable, signifying that the community was inspired to transform the lives of its citizens.


Introduction
Rural economic inequality is most likely to decline if general frameworks for social protection, development and skills, affordable healthcare, and facilities are well-developed. The provision of high-quality shared extension services is one key strategy to address this particular issue (OECD, 2006;Agholor et al., 2013).
The current societal tendency toward responsibility necessitates the evaluation of extension services. A successful extension program begins with the definition of specific objectives, which serve as the foundation for specifying work processes and assessing implementation compliance (Warburton et al., 2011, November). Meeting the ever-changing demands of many rural communities throughout the world is a major issue for extension services, as there is a need to empower extension workers with the competence, expertise, and ability to help localities respond to these adjustments and difficulties (Rossi, Lipsey, & Freeman, 2004). Extension service providers must be held accountable for guaranteeing that extension recipients are always happy with the results they get. Extension feedback has become progressively beneficial in determining their respect and commitment (Agholor et al., 2013).
Community extension was created to address a variety of communal needs and challenges. Through an agreement, the government and non-government groups, nonprofits, and private enterprises collaborated to help localities become financially sustainable and self-sufficient. Extension programs are need-based and focused on assisting community people towards becoming independent, skilled, and morally righteous individuals. It is a possibility for individuals far beyond the level of normal state schooling to pursue their education in order to increase the economy of rural communities in a dynamic world (Israel, Harder, & Brodeur, 2011). Extension service is a detailed account of operations aimed at achieving a range of measures among specific beneficiaries. Extension programs are distinguished by the following: a) an emphasis on the beneficiaries' demands; b) the purpose to improve their significant behavior patterns; c) a wide range of activities; and d) the inclusion of a systematic appraisal (Rubio et al., 2016;Wellard et al., 2013).
Extension services typically encompass features established by a higher education institution as a result of official or unstructured coordination with various non-profit, public, and social groups. It is targeted to raise the standard of living of local people or to address specific issues relating to their necessities (Lim, 2011;Laguador Mandigma, & Agena, 2013). Cultivating a society with a pressing need for support from several organizations is an expression of realizing the goal of assisting people in raising not only the living conditions of the disadvantaged but also the integrity and principles of all those who contribute to this worthwhile endeavor (Laguador & Chavez, 2013).
Few investigations on the sustainability of extension services have been undertaken, and certain critical challenges have been discovered, requiring a prompt and appropriate response (Agholor et al., 2013). These precarious issues include substandard extension assistance to beneficiaries; insufficient acceptable linkage with extension and research, considering that almost all research initiatives are focused on agricultural producers; extension methods were antiquated and therefore not appropriate to the comparison of various extension strategies; and, farmworkers were persuaded in using agricultural produce at a really greater extent against their performance (Baladjay et al., 2020;Bidad & Campiseño, 2010;Chua et al., 2014).
The Philippines' Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) also contributed to the 2020 Philippine Development Agenda (PDA) by making optimal Policy Interventions more accessible to the public. Its goal is to bring about constructive society development by eradicating inequality, encouraging family values, and resolving socially defined issues that empower the most disadvantaged individuals to overcome socioeconomic constraints. Furthermore, the HEIs adopted need-based practices to achieve their outputs, using a multitude of distribution mechanisms. The community's beneficiaries have similar requirements in terms of health, literacy, social services, and livelihood This civic engagement is a concern across all HEIs in the Philippines, and this was reinforced when the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) legislated that HEIs expand academic and community-based assistance to the community in order to resolve social determinants and provide appropriate training that would assist individuals to develop their skills to engage them in productive work (CMO #52 s. 2016). This regulation does not exclude the Nueva Vizcaya State University's College of Teacher Education (CTE). As a result, the College devised and presented two College projects to address the PDA and CHED challenges namely, Project HELP (Health and Environmental Awareness and Literacy Program) and Project KKK (Kumikitang Pangkabuhayan or Livelihood Program). Project HELP is an integrated, interactive, and interdisciplinary adopt-a-school program with the ultimate objective of changing the chosen school into a self-sustaining, empowering, and advancing learning center. Two college-based extension services were implemented at the partner school as part of this initiative: health and environmental awareness and literacy program. Students studying community development participate in community immersion programs to give research backing for local community choices. This is included in the learning class in order to meet the course goals. The Project KKK initiative also serves as a livelihood and skills training program for parents, locals, and out-of-school adolescents who are interested in participating. Needs analyses were done to determine the areas requiring advancement. The HELP project benefits the Ipil-Cuneg Elementary School, while the KKK project benefits the parents, citizens, and youth of this barangay. After a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was prepared and signed, these two projects began in 2014 in Barangay Ipil-Cuneg, Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines, and were terminated in 2019.
The impact of the community initiatives has yet to be seen or felt since their implementation. As a result, CTE must evaluate to establish the HELP and KKK programs' state to better respond to community needs. The study's findings will be used to reframe the development strategy. Hence, this research was conducted to determine the impact of extension services of the College of Teacher Education of Nueva Vizcaya State University, Philippines.

Objectives of the study
(1) To ascertain the extent of engagement of beneficiaries and implementers to the extension projects.
(2) To describe the level of benefits derived from the extension projects.
(3) To determine the extent of problems encountered by the beneficiaries and implementers of the extension projects (4) To determine the overall impact of the extension projects.

Methodology
This study employed descriptive research using a survey questionnaire to gather relevant data that substantiated the theme of this study among implementers and beneficiaries of extension services. This questionnaire was validated by educational experts to test its internal accuracy, and a Cronbach's alpha of 0.89 was obtained, indicating a remarkable level of reliability. The implementers (n = 45) are the faculty members of the College of Teacher Education of NVSU Bayombong Campus while the beneficiaries (n = 200) include the teachers, parents, and officers of the pupil organization of Ipil-Cuneg Elementary School as well as barangay officials and out-of-school youth of Barangay Ipil-Cuneg, Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines. Consent from the implementers and beneficiaries was taken and approval to conduct the study was sought from the University President, School Principal, and Barangay Captain. Mean was used to describe the extent of engagement, the level of benefits derived, the extent of problems encountered, and the overall impact of CTE's extension services.

Results and discussion
The findings of this study are the following: Table 1 presents the extent of engagement of beneficiaries and implementers to the college's extension services.

The extent of engagement of beneficiaries and implementers in the extension projects
Results show that the beneficiaries' and implementers' involvement with the College of Teacher Education's Projects HELP and KKK is extremely high, showing that the College's extension services to its adopted school and barangay are very engaging. This demonstrates that extension efforts draw both providers and consumers in significant volumes. Rubio and associates (2016) explained that community engagement is a critical component of revival in every community. Engaging in this type of activity will help considerably in working in teams and will encourage individuals to become associated with their environment. Volunteering in a community welfare initiative can enable an individual to enhance his connection with other people. It is arguable that the most crucial component of extension services in terms of cohesion is community awareness and engagement. Further, Dale & Burrell (2010) expound that extension service is a strategy born out of a profound shared sense of purpose to strengthen the area from the perspective of development initiatives. As a result, nature has been one of corporate responsibility, with a focus on society's advancement from recognized needs. The significance of the university's education scheme is characterized by its social nature (Dale & Burrel, 2010;. Moreover, civic engagement is a key part of social progress. This is a motivating factor that stems from individuals' shared interests and offers a framework for engagement among community partners, government representatives, education stakeholders, and communities (Bowen et al., 2010). Table 2 reflects the level of benefits derived from the projects as perceived by the beneficiaries and implementers.

On Project HELP
Health and Environmental Awareness. The beneficiaries and implementers rated this particular extension activity as high in all of its indicators: Clean-up drive and campaign materials for nature stewardship that impact civic engagement; conduct of initial training to raise family's universal healthcare consciousness and parental education; improved understanding of solid waste management systems; and the reassertion of natural medicinal cultivation that offered natural treatments and addressed the necessity for alternative medicine. These indicate that the extension participants have a high level of health and environmental sensitivity.
Literacy Program. The top three indicators of the CTE literacy program are tutorial activities that strengthen learners' writing, reading, and numeracy skills; parents and children's commitment to reading processes and linguistic literacy at home; and educational resources that involved children to participate fully in the teaching-learning activities. These findings suggest that the adopting institution effectively administered its extension services, notably its literacy program, and that program participants reaped significant advantages.

On Project KKK
This extension activity was evaluated by extension participants to be highly advantageous because of the following benefits: Project KKK supports individuals in learning new methods to supplement their income through unconventional businesses; it promotes and provides social and economic initiatives by educating the barangay council; it enhances the social background of the general populace; it improves marginal people's technology and livelihood abilities, allowing them to utilize them; and, it also expands their resource possibilities. Mihaylov and Perkins (2014) stressed that civic engagement is a collaborative effort of the government and non-profit groups to strengthen the community practically, culturally, and democratically. This is a strategy for bringing about beneficial progressive reform through poverty reduction, strengthening family principles, resolving socially constructed issues, and fostering transparency and equitable growth (Schiele, Jackson, & Fairfox, 2005). Further, Tan (2009) expressed that to overcome social hurdles, community development programs must assist the most marginalized populations. Furthermore, Schiele, Jackson, & Fairfax (2009) emphasized that the pursuit of development initiatives is seen as a communal challenge and strengthening endeavor.   Table 3 shows the extent of problems encountered by the beneficiaries and implementers of the projects. Table 3 shows that, generally, the implementers and beneficiaries indicated the abovementioned problems in the conduct of CTE extension services to be of a moderate extent. Findings further indicate that the difficulties in gathering community members, the irregularity of visits by implementers due to their academic workload, and the inconsistent monitoring and evaluation were less severe in the extension projects. Furthermore, the projects are not supported financially, either internally or externally which was viewed to be of great extent. These findings indicate that there were several issues and concerns that were brought to the attention of the adoptive college which will serve as grounds for the improvement of the extension activities in the near future. Ammakiw (2013) mentioned that in the delivery of extension services, there are major issues that need immediate attention and action such as the project implementers' lack of commitment to re-evaluate, resulting in delays in operation and limited use of evidence gleaned by the project implementers; there are few internal project reviews or ongoing self-evaluations, with external evaluators provoking modifications; and there is a widespread lack of coordination and cooperation between M&E activities and project management.

The overall impact of the extension projects
The overall impact of the extension services of the College of Teacher Education is presented in Table 4.
Results indicate that, generally, the extension services of the College of Teacher Education were evaluated by the beneficiaries and implementers to be high indicating that the community was empowered in terms of uplifting the lives of its residents. Further, it was worth noting that the extension services were evaluated to be very high in delivering basic literacy programs to its adopted community to support residents in becoming productive people.
The principle of empowerment is crucial for development initiatives. The growth of an individual's possibility of achieving self-determination is alluded to as empowerment. As a result of this, individuals are capable of exercising their preferences and accelerating judgments toward a preferred set of activities or consequences (Barnes & Schmitz, 2016). Citizens are considered empowered in terms of community development whenever they are engaged and provided with the opportunity to contribute to and agree on the form of the community activities that they will be engaging in for their own personal benefits (Newman, 2006). Additionally, the degree of engagement in the extension program is instrumental in enabling the advantages for society's households. Their cooperation could be evidence of existence, development, and a desire to enhance their standard of living. This could also be used to convey thoughts and connect with their surroundings (Ahmed & Palermo, 2010). Moreover, engagement in community initiatives has been shown in investigations to strengthen people's awareness, contentment, and other desirable collaborative connections (Le Dantec, 2012).

Conclusions
Beneficiaries and implementers are deeply engaged in the College of Teacher Education's Projects HELP and KKK, proving that extension initiatives attract both providers and consumers in high volumes. The adoptive college successfully managed its development programs such as Projects HELP and KKK, and extension participants benefitted immeasurably. Irregularity of consultations, difficulties in organizing residents, and incoherence in the monitoring and assessment of the college's extension activities were recognized as minor issues in the conduct of extension services. Beneficiaries and implementers regarded the College of Teacher Education's extension services as acceptable, signifying that the community was inspired to transform the lives of its citizens.

Recommendations
The findings have significance for policymakers who want to help the rural sector by delivering high-quality extension services. Further, it is essential to carry out a thorough assessment to resolve issues of responsibility and accountability in order to build beneficial interventions to maintain the delivery of effective quality extension services.