Friday, June 01, 2007 Wenceslao: CVI, City Central and education By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
I RECEIVED last week a text message from Roger Serato of Victor Village, Cebu City announcing that Batch 60 of the Camotes Visayan Institute (CVI) in Poro town will be holding its first reunion on Jan. 16, 2008. That's still months away but Mr. Serato is already ecstatic about it. For three January days, they will recall their high school frolic.
I remember writing a few years back about CVI, whose old structure I used to pass by going to Tay Pedro's house in Hambabawod from the Poro town proper. I used to spend many summer vacations in Camotes and stayed either in Poro, the hometown of my mother Juling, or Tudela, the hometown of my father Tiyong, who died in 2002.
CVI was then an aging wooden structure deserted during summer, but it survived as a learning institution mainly because of the dream of many young Porohanons to finish high school with the least expense. I believe that some of the school’s products are making good now, a number of them already in foreign lands realizing their dreams.
Which reminds me that members of my own elementary school batch from City Central School are also in the midst of preparations for a December reunion. Some Batch '72 members, more specifically from Sections 1 (Sun) and 2 (Moon), have been meeting sporadically since last year, mapping out plans to reach out to our other "lost" barkadas.
Of course, there are difficulties there. Since graduation more than three decades ago, we went our separate ways and the memories of our childhood banter have been pushed away as we grew older. And there's our version of diaspora, or of ex-classmates seeking better terms abroad. But we are determined to make the reunion worth our while.
City Central School Batch ’72 people reading this article should try contacting me. There is a different feeling when you are with those who were part of the innocent period of your life. Most of us have our own families but the bond that tied us before still seems strong now. Batch members should not miss the feeling of bond renewal.
Our group has set up our e-group (groups.yahoo.com/group/batch72 citycentral) for periodic updates and sharing. And that sharing inevitably goes back to those days in the City Central School campus that, through the years, has changed physically. I too would look back to those days and could not help but compare the old with the new.
I heard on radio yesterday a Department of Education official talk about the usual school opening woes: lack of classrooms, lack of teachers, lack of textbooks, etc. A few months ago, I asked my sister Litlit, who is teaching in City Central, to get for me a list of Grade 6 Sections 1, 2, and 3 of Batch ‘72. Reading that list, some contrasts were visible.
Our section, 1, had 35 students---17 boys and 18 girls. Section 2 had 32 students---15 boys and 17 girls. It is fair to say that the average number of students per class then was a little more than 30. That was already big in those days, considering that City Central was I think the city’s largest school (Grade 6 sections alone were around 20).
I could not imagine therefore one class having around 60 students, which I reckon is the average number of pupils per class now. To maximize the use of classrooms, we had half-day sessions for the main subjects. Even that time, we felt the problem, how much more now when government’s neglect of education has become more apparent?
