Return of the native–as a teacher

OLANGO ISLAND, Cebu—Leslie Marie Daño knew that getting a college degree would not be easy. Her father, Jose, is a fishermen in Barangay Tingo on Olango Island in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu. Her mother, Blesilda, is a day-care teacher.

Like other families on the island, her parents’ combined earnings are not enough to address her needs and her four siblings.  But poverty did not discourage Leslie from pursuing her dream of becoming a teacher.

After graduating from Tingo Elementary School in 1992 and Sta. Rosa National High School in 1996, she enrolled at University of the Visayas with the help of a couple, their neighbors from Tingo who already lived in the city. She worked as their helper in exchange for her college education.

It was a major achievement for her family and the barangay when Leslie finished her education degree in 2002 and subsequently passed the licensure exams for teachers. Among the 60 elementary graduates of Tingo in 1992, she was one of the seven who have earned degrees.

Masteral pursuit

Leslie, now 30, is a Grade 5 Science teacher in the same school where she graduated from 19 years ago. She is now completing her masters in education (administration and supervision).

“The challenge here is to make the parents accountable for their children’s performance in school. We repeatedly emphasize that it is not the teacher’s sole responsibility to ensure better education for the children. They are also responsible,” she said.

With a population of 478 pupils from Grades 1 to 6, Tingo Elementary School has a low mastery in English, Science, Mathematics, Filipino and Hekasi (Heograpiya, Kasaysayan, Sibika) based on the National Achievement Test results administered by the Department of Education every year.

Although she cannot cite specific percentages, Leslie said Tingo was the lowest performing school in 2006-2007 with a general score that is below 50 percent.

Malou Gerra, corporate social responsibility manager of Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa, which started assisting the school in 2008, noted that the shortage of classrooms was worsened by the dilapidated state of the buildings.

Gerra said this situation—alongside the parents’ general indifference to monitoring their children’s schooling and the lack of instructional materials—contributed to the school’s poor performance.

Most of the youth stop pursuing college education after finishing high school because of the high cost. The need to support the family is urgent, especially in a barangay where the average household size is composed of seven family members.

Tingo, one of the eight barangays in Olango, had a population of 2,750 as of 2007. It is directly across Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa (7 kilometers) and can be reached in 15-20 minutes by boat.

Olango has six islets—Sulpa, Gilutongan, Nalusuan, Caohagan, Pangan-an and Camungi.

Fishing community

Most of the families rely on fishing for their daily subsistence.

Children, who are able to finish high school education, often go to the mainland to work in industries as contractual workers or housemaids.

Veneranda Suan, 43, a mother of 10, knows the drill.

Her husband Renilo earns P200 daily as a boatman. Their eldest child is 23 and her youngest daughter is still 2. Three children are enrolled in the elementary school.

“We are striving hard to maximize what we have,” Suan said in Cebuano. She accompanied her children on June 11 during the joint read-along activity organized by Inquirer Visayas and Shangri-La Mactan in Tingo.

She said it was a rare experience for the children to have visitors in the school.

A way out of poverty

Storytelling is a known activity but is seldom practiced, she said.

To Teacher Leslie, telling the children inspiring stories is a way of encouraging them to find a way out of poverty and that imagination can become a reality, with herself as an example.

That is why she chose to go back to Tingo after working as substitute teacher for other schools in the city.

“I’m home here. I earn while helping inspire my pupils that it can be done. It’s hard, but this is my job and I will do it,” she said.