Asturias town

Moms lobby for education

PTA officials of Banban Primary School urge fellow parents to send their kids to school.

PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) president Divina Yongod and vice-president Rumalita Baflor of Banban Primary School in Asturias, northwest Cebu believe that education is the key to a good future.

Several years back, the school in the mountain barangay of Banban stopped offering classes to Grades three to six pupils due to low turnout of enrollees.

It was only in 2001 when grades three and four reopened, grade five in 2006, and grade six in 2011 as children, with the encouragement of Yongod and Baflor, expressed interest in returning to school.

They knew what it was like for the children who have to cross rivers, trek steep mountains, and walk several kilometers just to reach their school.

Among those affected by this scenario are the six grandchildren of Baflor and a child of Yongod.

“It is a heart-wrenching experience to see these children sacrifice just to attend school. When it rains, the water of the river reaches to the waist,” Yongod, 42, said in Cebuano.

“As parents, it is our duty to send our children to school but some children can’t attend because they have to do some errands before going to school, including bringing the animals to grazing areas, while others opted not to study because the school is far from their home,” Baflor, 63, said.

During their regular meetings, Yongod and Baflor, along with other PTA officials, encouraged the parents to be involved and proactive in their children’s education. Yongod and Baflor also conducted house visitations to convince the parents to send their children to school.

The parents responded. Aside from ensuring their children’s education, they are now cleaning and repairing classrooms during the annual Brigada Eskwela.

They also renovated the school’s small stage and built a waiting place for parents.

“We are doing this not just for our children but also for the next generation,” Yongod said.

But Yongod said she always feels down whenever parents would say education will not make a person rich or education “cannot be cooked for dinner.”

“A good education can give our children good future. This is the only treasure that cannot be stolen from them,” Yongod said.

Yongod is a volunteer barangay health worker. She joins midwives and nurses in assisting pregnant women during birth.

Baflor, on the other hand, is active in their chapel. She volunteers in cleaning churches.

The only sources of income for the two women are their farm produce and livestock. However, their busy schedule affected their livelihood, Yongod said.

“Our neighbors would say that we have already sacrificed our livelihood to attend to the needs of the school. Sometimes, we don’t have anything to harvest because we were not able to plant root crops, bananas and corn,” she said. And that meant that there would be no food on the table.

March this year, Banban Primary School became a beneficiary of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.’s (RAFI) school rehabilitation program.

In partnership with the municipality of Asturias, RAFI renovated the school’s three dilapidated classrooms built back in 1967.

“The building was very old and had to be renovated to make it conducive to learning,” Baflor said.

One of the problems the school is facing is water connection. At present, students bring their own water pails. /Chrisley Ann Hinayas/Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.