Fish pen owners make school come to kids of Taal village

SAN NICOLAS, Batangas—If children cannot go to school, the school will come to them.

With no other motive than to provide education to almost 200 island-bound grade-school children, the municipal government of San Nicolas and fish cage operators of Taal Lake, decided to build a school on Taal Volcano island.

The school, which has a two-classroom building built in late 2010 by Mayor Epifanio Sandoval but was never operated, has recently expanded with an additional one-classroom unit built across it and funded by Taal Lake Aquaculture Alliance Inc. (TLAAI), a group of fish cage operators, in the village of Alas-as.

Last Friday, TLAAI turned over the classroom, a 7-by-9-meter white facility with steel trusses. Now named Alas-as Elementary School, it will formally open its doors in June.

“No project would be completed here if all the people would think about is the eruption of the volcano,” said Sandoval, to explain his decision to build a school in Alas-as.

Gina Lacsamana, education program supervisor for Batangas, said officials knew that among the requirements in building a school was that it should not be built in a hazardous area, much less a “permanent danger zone” such as Taal Volcano island.

But, she said: “We can’t really avoid this. We must take the risk because that is our mission—to provide education.”

Lacsamana said they salute the Department of Education, municipal government and TLAAI because of their commitment to build a school for the children of Barangay Alas-as, where the people are mostly lake fishers, fish cage workers and hog raisers, who refuse to leave the island and are fiercely protective of the only home they have known despite repeated pleas for them to live elsewhere safer.

As of last count, there are 5,000 residents on the island, 1,900 of whom live in Alas-as, according to Ginette Segismundo, the public information officer of the Batangas provincial government.

Lacsamana said five more teachers would be needed in Alas-as.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources donated 100 armchairs while a private group and lawyer Angelo Valencia, a local resident, donated 160 school kits for the children, said Lacsamana.

Mario Balazon, spokesperson for TLAAI, said the number of enrollees had reached 180, making the school ready to open its doors for the first time for elementary students in June.