Believing in a Better Way

By Rhea B. Peñaflor

My wife and I were meant to be in Guam only briefly — a quick birthday getaway, nothing more. But fate had other plans. That short trip brought me to former Sen. Shirley “Sam” Mabini, whose lifelong advocacy for inclusive education speaks directly to the work closest to my heart.

When former Sen. Shirley “Sam” Mabini made history as the first elected Filipina to the Guam Legislature, her victory carried far more than symbolic weight. Serving in the 31st Guam Legislature, she entered public office not as a career politician, but as a first-generation immigrant, educator, consultant, and long-time community leader in Guam — someone who had spent years studying how systems shape, and sometimes fail, the lives of everyday people.

“It was never part of my plan to run for office,” she tells me with a laugh, recalling her early years as an educator and researcher. “But when I realized that many of the barriers facing our students weren’t accidental — that they were embedded in law — I knew that if I wanted real change, I had to work where the rules are written.”

As Program and Development Division head of the Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation Inc. (CLFI), an organization committed to financial inclusion, inclusive education, and the Alternative Learning System (ALS), I listen with a familiar sense of urgency. In Dr. Mabini’s story, I hear unmistakable echoes of the Philippine education landscape: learners tracked too early, skills dismissed too quickly, and human potential judged through narrow academic standards.

Redefining success beyond college

One of Sen. Mabini’s most enduring legislative contributions is the College and Career Readiness Act (CCaRe Act), a reform that reshaped how Guam prepared students for life after high school. At its core was a deceptively simple yet radical question: What are we actually preparing students for?

“In Guam — just like in the Philippines — we equated success with a four-year degree,” Mabini explains. “But we never stopped to ask whether college was truly the right path for every learner.”

Her academic research revealed what many education systems overlook: Technical and craft skills in high-tech or construction-related careers often require higher levels of literacy, problem-solving, and applied science than purely academic tracks. Yet students who excel in hands-on learning environments are frequently stigmatized as being “less capable.” This stigma is based on outdated assumptions, which is ironic considering their high demand and often higher compensation, as seen in the U.S.

This reality closely mirrors the experience of ALS learners in the Philippines — out-of-school youth, working adults, young mothers, and persons with disabilities — who are often labeled educational “dropouts” rather than individuals navigating structural exclusion.

“The question should never be, ‘Why didn’t they go to college?’” Mabini says. “The real question is, ‘Did we prepare them for a life they can actually sustain?’”

Career and technical education as inclusion, not exception

Sen. Mabini is careful to clarify that career and technical education (CTE) is not separate from academic learning; it is its integration.

“CTE isn’t plumbing over here and academics over there,” she emphasizes. “A plumber reads complex manuals. An electrician applies physics daily. A bookkeeper uses advanced math and professional communication.”

In this sense, CTE becomes a natural ally of inclusive education, an approach that recognizes diverse learning styles and validates multiple forms of intelligence without lowering standards.

This philosophy strongly aligns with CLFI’s ALS work, which treats education not as a rigid ladder but as a continuum — one where learners may enter and exit formal systems as life demands, without forfeiting dignity or opportunity.

“Inclusive education,” Dr. Mabini notes, “is not about lowering expectations. It’s about removing blinders, raising expectations about individual abilities. Lifelong learning.”

Barriers are structural, not personal

Throughout her term, Mabini confronted obstacles that had little to do with student motivation and everything to do with structural access. Transportation, industry partnerships, parental understanding, and teacher readiness consistently shaped whether students could benefit from work-based learning.

“You can’t tell a student to take an internship if there’s no way to get there,” she says plainly. “And you can’t expand work-based learning if businesses aren’t prepared to mentor and protect young workers.”

In the Philippines, these same barriers affect ALS learners in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDA). Opportunity may exist in principle — but too often without the scaffolding needed to reach it.

“Inclusion,” Mabini stresses, “requires systems to move — not just students.”

Rethinking the digital race

Once a strong advocate for universal access to devices in classrooms, Mabini has since evolved her views on digital inclusion, informed by emerging research in neuroscience and education.

“We treated technology as the solution,” she reflects, “when it was only ever a tool. And in some cases, we weakened learning instead of strengthening it.”

She warns against conflating digital access with educational quality — a caution especially relevant in the Philippines, where digitization is frequently pursued without equivalent attention to pedagogy, teacher capacity, or learner well-being.

For ALS learners in particular, she suggests that high-touch teaching paired with purposeful technology may be far more effective than screen-heavy instruction.

“Education should drive the tool,” she says, “not the other way around.”

Data, direction, and future readiness

If she were designing education reform today, Mabini would begin with alignment: education policy tied directly to economic direction and supported by data-driven decision-making.

“Countries that succeed — Singapore, Japan, Germany — know exactly what workforce they’re building,” she explains. “Without that clarity, schools are left guessing.”

She also calls for better use of education data — not to police learners, but to support them early and intelligently. In the Philippine ALS context, this means shifting success metrics away from mere completion and toward post-learning outcomes: employment, livelihood stability, confidence, and community participation.

“Data shouldn’t sit in filing cabinets,” she says. “It shows patterns, it should tell us how to and who needs help — now.”

Across islands, a shared belief

As our conversation closes, we return to teachers. They represent the often-invisible backbone of reform. Through her continued work leading ACTE across the Western Pacific, Mabini supports educators as agents of transformation, equipping them for rapidly changing labor markets.

When I mention ALS teachers traveling long distances to reach learners in remote communities, she nods quietly.

“They’re not just teaching lessons,” she says. “They’re restoring belief.”

Belief that learning has many paths.

Belief that work has dignity.

Belief that systems can change — when people dare to believe in a better way.

Bridging learning and livelihood: A Philippine reality

Sen. Mabini’s experience offers the Philippines not a template, but a grounding reality check: We already possess multiple education and workforce pathways, yet too often fail to connect learning with livelihood. This is where community-based models like those of the Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation Inc. (CLFI) demonstrate how inclusive education can translate into meaningful outcomes. Through its integrated community development approach, CLFI supports ALS graduates beyond certification, linking learning to economic participation by providing access to Kanegosyo Centers for enterprise mentoring, microinsurance to manage risk, microsavings and microloans to build assets, and pathways to broader social protection through its partnership with the DSWD Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP). In this model, education does not end at completion but continues through capital access, financial resilience, and guided livelihood formation, which are particularly critical for learners navigating poverty, disrupted schooling, or informal work.

As Jean Henri Lhuillier, president and CEO of Cebuana Lhuillier, has emphasized, “Financial inclusion is not just about access to services — it is about giving people the tools and confidence to build better lives for themselves and their families.” The lesson, mirrored in Mabini’s reforms in Guam, is clear: Education becomes a bridge rather than a barrier only when systems are aligned — when learning, finance, and social protection move together to honor skills, restore dignity, and enable people not just to graduate, but to sustain a life of their own making.

Dr. Shirley “Sam” Mabini Young, a former Guam senator and educator, holds a Ph.D. in Work and Human Resource Education and a Master of Education in Work, Community and Family Education from the University of Minnesota.