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| Ribbon cutting. Esperanza Mayor Leonida Manpatilan together with officials of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Education cut the ceremonial ribbon for the launching of the new Lumad schools. Photo courtesy of Clemente Aroy, PPIO Agusan del Sur |
Contributing Editor
ESPERANZA, Agusan del Sur--Higaonon residents in the far-flung hinterland Hinamaybay village take pride of constructing two new school buildings after two months of voluntary works in the spirit of Bayanihan.
The new schools, consisting of one two-classroom and another three-classroom buildings designed with a Higaonon culture concept are now ready to use to some 216 elementary pupils and 75 secondary grade 7 and 8 students.
Built under the Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-Cidss) program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development(DSWD), the new P3.9 million classroom buildings were inaugurated by Esperanza Mayor Leonida Manpatilan and local officials on Wednesday, September 20.
Considered by the Department of Education as lumad public school, five of the eleven teachers who belong to the different indigenous tribes of this province will teach the school children using the Higanonon medium of instruction in all subjects in the elementary and secondary level.
The opening of the 3-classroom building is also a welcome sigh of relief to the grade 7 and 8 students as they would no longer trek some seven to nine kilometers rugged roads and mountain trail to study in secondary schools in the distant neighboring villages.
Kinamaybay is an isolated community inhabited by 90 percent Higaonons which can be only reached by habal-habal motorcycles and 4-wheel drive vehicles with its interior roads can be only accessed using the national highway connecting La Nieves town in Agusan del Norte.
It was once disturbed by the bombings at the height of atrocities between New Peoples Army rebels and Army soldiers in 2010 but residents confronted their sad plight to a committed resolve to instead help one another to uplift their socioeconomic condition.
This had drawn government attention, making them recipients of various Kalahi-Cidss projects funded by the World Bank in the past years.
Visiting DSWD officials were impressed with the way residents cooperate as everybody would be present at a gathering for a meeting at the multipurpose hall of the village as soon as they hear the clang of the distant bell.
Aside from the new school building, the residents were recipients of previous Kalahi-Cidss sub projects, including village road, day care center, rice and corn mill, solar dryer and concrete pathway which were realized because of the residents active participation as stakeholders during the implementation stages of the projects.
During her visit, Manpatilan also inaugurated the P680,00 300-meter road leading to the new secondary school building and the turnover of P2.5 million farm tractor. “This is a 4-in-1 projects here that will bring total makeover of the community,” the mayor said.. She lauded the Kalahi-Cidss program as a holistic approach that had given residents a proud sense of ownership.
Samuel Ampahan, chairperson of Barangay Sub Project Management Committee, said the residents’ sincere commitment to participate in realizing the projects which were carried out with transparency and accountability was the key to their success.
He recalled many of those who volunteered to become part of the project monitoring team did not have formal education at
school, but managed to learn skills from the trainings that taught them the intricacies on the standards and regulations of the projects.
Some of the residents admitted the training and workshops and their exposure on canvassing the materials outside their village helped them better persons to socialize in the outside world, a transformation from the traditional traits of a Higaonon who are meek and shy.
Ampahan, a pastor of a Christian church in the village, has been a Kalahi-Cidss volunteer leader for 11 years which made him a finalist in the program’s national awards this year.
Village chief Rolando Pinahan said the projects that the community received served as an instrument to develop their ancestral domain.” We never thought the projects would come here,” Pianhan said, adding in local vernacular that “walay man mi kurso kon grado pero ang among pagka kursunada maoy nagpatuman niining tanan (We did not have courses in education but our strong will and determination made this all happen.)”
The Lumad public school would be the first in Caraga with complete package using the indigenous teaching curriculum under the K-12 educational program.
The five Lumad teachers, even with the absence of teaching materials and textbooks, have taught the elementary school children the different subjects using the Higaonon dialect.
Virginia Talidro, Supervisor of Department of Education District I of Esperanza, said the Lumad teachers have undergone trainings during summer time for them to internalize in the K12 program the indigenization and contextualization of the curriculum. “These will be integrated across learning areas of the school chidren,” she said.
Leo Madrina, Teacher-In-Charge of Hinamaybay Elementary School, said two English and Science volunteer teachers who are Lumads are now teaching the grade 7 and grade 8 students who will be transferring to the new three-classroom school buildings.
Already, the Lumad teachers have been tasked to work on the orthography of Higaonon dialect and the materials will be given to the tribal leaders for validation.
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