GOING to school in the mountain villages is still not easy for some of Cebu’s pupils, who attend classes in sheds and other makeshift spaces.
They walk on dirt roads for one and a half hours a day just to attend classes in a school in Minglanilla town that does not have electricity, or study in improvised classrooms in Badian.
In Ginatilan town, pupils have learned to survive without water supply in their school.
“Anad na mi lakaw og layo, magkarga pa man gani mi og kamote para makapalit mi og bugas (We are used to hiking, and we sometimes carry camote so we can buy rice),” said Jasen Canedo, 13, a Grade 6 pupil of Calbasa-an Elementary School in Minglanilla.
Despite the hardship, pupils still enjoy going to school to learn and play with their classmates.
Last Thursday, Sun.Star Cebu visited Calbasa-an Elementary School in the highlands of Barangay Camp 7 in Minglanilla. To reach the school, one has to pass through a 16-kilometer rough road from the main highway in Barangay Pakigne.
The day before, Capitol reporters also joined the Provincial Engineering Office’s (PEO) personnel to visit Calangcang Elementary School in Barangay Calangcang, Badian and Kagsing Elementary School in Barangay Kagsing, Ginatilan to check the ongoing construction of a two-classroom building there.
Although the teachers and pupils of these two schools are lucky to have a road leading to the school, those in the school in Minglanilla are not.
Out of the way
“We need a road from Sitio Lubas and electricity in our school,” said Sharon Abella-Neda, teacher-in-charge of Calbasa-an Elementary School in Minglanilla.
The rough road to Calbasa-an is only up to Sitio Lubas in Barangay Camp 7.
“Abi namo nga dili na mi ninyo makit-an (We thought you’d never see our plight here),” said Irenea “Nene” Fajardo, 53, a resident of Sitio Lubas, who wishes that government officials would see the condition of the road.
From Lubas, one hikes a three-kilometer path on the hill with tomato plantations before reaching the school. It has 176 pupils with seven teachers from kindergarten to Grade 6.
The school depends on rainwater for their water supply, so they have no water during the summer.
Parents-Teachers’ Association (PTA) vice president Edgar Canedo, 52, said some of their pupils come from as far as Sitio Pagimpinon
in Camp 7 and Sitio Matun-og of Barangay Guindaruhan, an hour and a half’s hike from Calbasa-an.
“Kung tag-uwan dangog kayo, di ka diretso diretso lakaw ang mga bata (When it rains the trail is slippery, so children cannot walk fast),” said Canedo.
The school boasts of a zero dropout rate, a result of the parents’ fear of losing their Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) monthly cash benefits, said Neda. There are 100 beneficiaries of the program in their school.
No one quits, but many report to class late every day, said Grade 3 teacher Ma Lourdes Tecson, a graduate of Calbasa-an.
They still go to school every day despite their dimly lit classrooms, which get darker on a cloudy day like last Thursday, said Neda.
They have a one-horsepower generator set donated by Neda’s former colleague in Lipata Elementary School, Dr. Alex Acosta, who is now a principal in Doha, Qatar. But they only use it occasionally, as they have no funds for fuel.
They used it during their graduation rites last April 30, with Rep. Gerald Anthony “Samsam” Gullas (Cebu, 1st) as their guest.
The generator set, however, shut down in the middle of the ceremony. “Napawng kay nahutdan og gasolina, (It stopped working because we ran out of fuel),” said Neda.
The following week, a team from the Visayan Electric Company (Veco) visited the school. Five months after that visit, they still have no power supply.
Tecson said their pupils cannot study and do their assignments at night because there is no electricity in the community.
“Kung mahurot na ang gas di na mi ka study, tingkarol ra man gud (If our lamp runs out of kerosene, we won’t be able to study),” said 12-year-old Edmar Rapayla.
“Magdali na lang mi buhat og assignment sa school inig abot (We do our homework in a hurry as soon as we arrive in school),” said Russel John Badayos, 12.
Sun.Star Cebu noticed holes dug up along the trail going to the school. That day, tin posts were unloaded from a truck of a Veco contractor in Sitio Lubas.
Pupils tread this slippery foot trail to school daily, said Sander Basister, 10, and they are used to it. They use the same road to go to the market on weekends to bring their farm produce.
“Among tabangan among ginikanan kay luoy kaayo (We need to help our parents, they need our help),” said Repayla.
“Mao wa mi katubo (which is why we remained small),” Canedo said in jest.
They still play in their free time with games like bato lata, tago sa libon, pusil-pusil and spider fights. There’s hardly any electricity, so most of them are still unfamiliar with the Internet.
If Calbasa-an’s pupils use only seven of the school’s 11 classrooms, the 78 pupils of Calangcang Elementary School in Badian hold their classes in makeshift classrooms.
Measuring two meters wide and 12 meters long, the structure, which resembles a waiting shed, is divided into three. A sheet of plywood divides the space. It has a roof and concrete floor, but there are no doors.
“One time namatong sa desk ang mga bata kay baha, kusog ang uwan (They sat on top of the desk because of flood caused by heavy rains),” said Calangcang kinder and Grade 1 teacher Joselyn Tanlangit.
A fourth room, similar but smaller, is used as an office and stockroom.
Their original 3-room classroom building was condemned after the Oct. 15, 2013 earthquake, Calangcang teacher Nelizabeth Eslaguerra said, so they were forced to hold classes under a tent, on the old stage and the small waiting shed near the school gate for two weeks. She teaches both Grades 3 and 4.
After an appeal to the parents to build the rooms and with some funds from the school’s maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE), the makeshift rooms were constructed.
When asked if the two classrooms that the Provincial Government is building are enough, teachers said that if possible, they would ask for two more rooms.
“Problema sab mi sa tubig (We also need water here),” said Tanlangit, saying that water supply is available only from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m.
This irregular water supply is affecting the construction of their two-classroom building.
Water is also scarce in Kagsing Elementary school, about seven kilometers away from Ginatilan town proper. The school has 167 pupils.
“Hangtod maestra magdala og kaugalingong arinola (Some of the teachers bring their own chamber pots),” Marilyn Magnifico, one of the eight teachers, said. They request local residents to fetch water with one-gallon containers from a natural spring 100 meters away.
The school has three buildings with three classrooms each, including a Gabaldon building that was remodeled after being damaged during a typhoon in 2012.
Their fourth building, with three rooms, was condemned after the October 2013 earthquake.
In most of the classrooms, three pupils share a desk.
Salome Duterte, a Grade 1 teacher in Kagsing, said the building being constructed by the Province would mean two more classrooms for them.