“IF WE ARE not going to teach these children, who will?”
For 33-year-old Flordeluna Monares, primary school teacher in the mountain barangay of Taganghin, Tapaz, Capiz, teaching is her destiny and the love for her profession is what makes her overcome the arduous and perilous trek to Taganghin Primary School.
Barangay Taganghin is some 30 kilometers from the poblacion of Tapaz. Monares must brave undulating hills, winding rough roads and an unpredictable river to reach the primary school – the only public school in the remote village.
She handles Grade 2 to Grade 3 pupils.
“Ang amon heart para gid diri sa mga kabataan,” she says. “We consider them our
second family. We are their parents in school.”
Their assignment in this far-flung school is a challenge not only physically but also emotionally, according to 35-year-old Vaniza Gascon, office-in-charge of Taganghin Primary School. She also handles Kindergarten and Grade 1 classes.
Due to the remoteness of the barangay, Gason and her three co-teachers stay in the village – roughly 20 days in a month.
The only time they would go down to the town center – once a month – is when they have to replenish their supplies, primarily food and school supplies.
According to Gascon, this is also the time they could go home and spend time for some 10 days with their respective families.
Gascon, volunteer teacher for two years before become a regular teacher in 2015, is a single mother of two kids, one in Grade 9 and the other in Grade 10.
Keeping track of her children’s studies is difficult, she says, and kind of ironic.
“Wala ako kabalo if ang ila pagtuon okay man or indi, pero ikaw diri sa bukid ginabakasan nga makamaan ang mga bata diri,” says Gascon.
The only male teacher at Taganghin Primary School, 29-year-old Wilmar Almio, teaches Grade 5 and Grade 6 pupils.
No regrets teaching in this remote village, he stresses.
“For me, teaching here is a mission,” says Almio who volunteered teaching in the primary school for two years prior to becoming a regular teacher in the lowlands.
But eventually, says Almio, he decided to return to Taganghin Primary School.
“I hope children here would be able to finish their studies up to college. Who knows, someday someone from this village would become the mayor of Tapaz or governor of our province. This is why indi kami mag-untat sa pagtudlo diri sa upland,” says Almio.
Monares agrees.
“These children start from nothing. Our hearts are filled with joy seeing them learn how to read and write. Isa na ina kadako nga fulfillment para sa amon,” she says.
In educating the children, Monares, Gascon and Almio are ably assisted by volunteer teacher Maria Concepcion Hernandez, 31.
“Sa mga kabataan gid nalooy kami. Ang mga parents kulang gid, waay may na iskwelahan. Sa kabataan na lang kami ga-focus nga at least matudloan sila magbasa, mag-isip para sa pila ka adlaw indi sila mabudlayan or indi sila maintuan kung mag adto sila mga syudad,” Hernandez says./PN