How Cordillera children are deprived of education

	How Cordillera children are deprived of education
	By Maurice Malanes Philippine Daily Inquirer
	Posted date: June 11, 2008
	KIBUNGAN, Benguet – At the second crow of the rooster at daybreak, children of the sub-village of Liwen in Benguet’s upland town of Kibungan have to wake up, eat an early breakfast, and brace for an hour-long uphill climb to the nearest school at the poblacion (town center). After classes are dismissed in the afternoon, they have to rush home before it gets dark. Their ordeal – come rain, typhoon or cold season – is a fact of life not only in this Kankanaey town but elsewhere in the Cordillera. This is why Jimmy Jose, 27, a native of Sinacbat village in neighboring Bakun town, and many of his former elementary classmates had to reach at least 8 years old so they can enter Grade 1. “We had to grow older and be strong enough to be able to walk or (literally) climb our way to school,” recalls Jose, a forestry graduate, who worked his way through high school and college. “This remains the reality in our community.” “Worse, those who were too weak and those not so determined to go to school eventually would drop out and forget school altogether,” he says. Kibungan is a fifth-class municipality (annual income: P7 million-P13 million). The Department of Education aims to encourage more children, particularly 6-year-olds, to enroll in Grade 1. It has campaigned to inform parents to enroll their children after noting a low turnout of 6-year-old enrollees for Grade 1 last school year. Only more than a third or a million of the three million 6-year-old children nationwide enrolled in Grade 1 last year, says Benito Tumamao, DepEd Cordillera director. This national trend was more or less the same in the Cordillera, he says. “The difficult access of children to the nearest school where they have to walk six to seven kilometers remains a main factor [for the low turnout of Grade 1 enrollees] in our region,” says Tumamao. Ninety-five percent of the Cordillera terrain is mountainous. The only flat lands are in Tabuk City, Kalinga; Bangued, Abra; and the valley town of La Trinidad, Benguet’s capital. “So I understand how these 6-year-olds with frail bodies can hardly withstand the rigors of hiking kilometers just to reach the nearest school,” says Tumamao. The DepEd has projected over 6,000 6-year-olds in Grade 1 in the region this year or almost 3 percent of the 216,865 projected total enrollees for the elementary level. Education for all It seeks to help achieve in the country the United Nations goal to provide education for all by 2015. But Tumamao admits this goal will continue to elude the country unless policy reforms are made. An area that needs reforms is in building schools in remote communities. Since the government wants to “economize” on what it allots for teaching positions, the DepEd cannot put up schools in communities with fewer than 30 students. But the reality is that many remote communities in the Cordillera have fewer than 30 6-year-olds at a given school year. These children are thus forced to enroll in schools at the town or village centers, if they are fit enough. Tumamao is proposing a policy to establish schools even in communities with low enrollment. A teacher can be assigned to a community where even 15 children can use a barangay (village) hall as classroom, he says. Children in remote communities can also go to school at the right age if they are provided boarding schools, he says. Boarding schools would allow them to go home only on weekends to get supplies for the week. Tumamao says Cordillera lawmakers may consider these policy reforms to help them craft education-related laws. “We, educators, would be happy if our legislators would support these suggested policy reforms,” he says. For secondary education, the Cordillera recorded almost 13-percent dropout rate last school year, one of the highest in the country. Tumamao cites economic difficulties, health problems and the distance of schools among the major reasons. If the trend continues, almost 12,000 of the projected 89,640 high school enrollees this year would drop out. Fast Facts The Cordillera still lacks teachers in both public elementary and high schools. This school year, it needs 95 elementary school teachers and 37 high school teachers, according to the Department of Education. In Ifugao, 25 elementary school teachers are needed; Kalinga, 22; Benguet, 18; Mt. Province, 11; Apayao, 11; Baguio City, six; and Abra, two. Benguet needs 14 secondary school teachers while Apayao needs 11; Kalinga, five; and Mt. Province, four. Abra and Baguio City have no projected need for new teachers until 2011. Many schools still lack classrooms and armchairs or desks. For grade school, Kalinga needs 99 classrooms; Benguet, 64; Abra, 36; Baguio, 23; Mt. Province, 19; Ifugao, 18; and Apayao, 14. For high school, Kalinga needs 73 classrooms; Mt. Province, 50; Baguio, 48; Benguet, 40; Apayao, 36; and Abra, 27. Elementary schools in Benguet need 5,836 armchairs or desks. Kalinga needs 4,468 desks; Apayao, 1,990; Baguio, 1,396; Mt. Province, 1,360; Ifugao, 729; and Abra, 622.