Jobert Cotic is no ordinary sentry. On a Wednesday morning, he keeps his post at the green-roofed gatehouse and makes sure hurrying schoolchildren could fulfill the day’s ritual before they are allowed in.
He does not carry a nightstick, whistle or flashlight, like common guards do. After all, he is just a thin, frail-looking 6-year-old Grade 1 pupil of Matangad Elementary School at the foot of the gold-rich Mount Diwalwal village in Monkayo, Compostela Valley.
Being one of the day’s six gatekeepers, Cotic flashes a rectangular pink cartolina with the command “Basa (Read).” With childish authority, he orders two boys and a girl wearing a scarlet tribal garb – all of them his age but look older – to do so.
The trio chorus: “Baha (Flood). Siguy.” He then asks the entrants to repeat the words before he allows them to trudge on. A new batch of schoolchildren approaches and is also asked to recite what’s on the flash card.
Cotic is one of the day’s “reading specialists” assigned to teach fellow pupils under Matangad’s “unique” reading program.
According to school officials, the program aims to revitalize reading and facilitate learning among pupils by integrating the local languages or dialects of the community where the majority of residents are members of the Mandaya tribe.
Designed during the start of school in 2008, the program has been cited for its innovative way of helping Mandaya children learn easier and appreciate the value of reading and attending classes.
“Our schoolchildren find learning enjoyable as if they’re just playing,” says Michael Ramo, head teacher of the six-grade elementary school of just over a hundred pupils. “They also find the lessons relevant as these are translated into their dialects.”
Being Mandaya
Located 4.5 kilometers from the center of its mother village of Upper Ulip, the school and its host community are further separated from the town center by more than 10 km of bumpy gravel road. One has to cross two creaking hanging bridges over a meandering river while riding on a habal-habal (local motorcycle-for-hire) before reaching the school.
The school itself is nestled on a ridge and surrounded by a forest of coconut and fruit trees.
Teacher Grace Tura Antonio says the need to rekindle the children’s love for their Mandaya culture also motivated her to introduce the program. Being a Mandaya herself, she says it pains her to see them struggle even in giving the Mandaya equivalents of English, Filipino or Cebuano words they hear, read and learn at school.
“Before, the children were ashamed to admit they’re Mandaya. They were afraid to be discriminated against. They were even more fluent in speaking in Cebuano,” recalls the 28-year-old reading teacher who handles two sections.
2 birds with 1 stone
The original program was called “Reading … Your Gate Pass or REYG.” It expanded to group reading, mentoring, remedial reading and other activities to improve the learning competencies of the schoolchildren, according to Antonio.
All pupils are given the chance to become reading specialists. For the program, Matangad’s four teachers (including Antonio) called commentators give oral reading pretest and posttest to the pupils, and basing from their performance, designate them as players, coaches and trainers.
Different words, phrases and sentences are given to each of the specialists for the players to read at the gate, according to Antonio.
For Grade 1, the words are in Cebuano, the main language they use at home, with a Mandaya translation. Those in higher grades are given English phrases or sentences with Bisaya and Mandaya equivalents. To ensure learning, the commentators or teachers follow up the use of the words, phrases or sentences during classroom remedial.
“It’s hitting two birds with one stone. They have reading and comprehension on one hand, and they learn about their language and indigenous culture on the other,” Antonio explains.
To stress their ethnic background, the school integrates lessons about Lumad culture in four core subjects. Examples of objects during lectures focus on Mandaya names.
“We try to integrate IP [indigenous people] culture in our curriculum and preserve their Lumad identity. Through this, they will understand more and appreciate their culture,” Antonio says.
On Wednesdays, the school encourages the pupils to wear tribal garbs instead of casual attires. Antonio recalls that when she first asked the pupils to wear tribal clothes back in 2008, they were uncooperative and even laughed at her. “They told me they’re ashamed and even burst in giggles when I spoke Mandaya to the class,” she adds.
Partnership
When Antonio told the parents about the “reading specialists” program, they were more than enthusiastic. Support from the community came in, with the parents themselves volunteering to put up the shed and paint the gate for their children to have a shade while “on duty.”
“Most of the parents are farmers and devote much of their time to tend their corn or vegetable fields, yet they still attend school activities,” Ramo says.
The school plans to raise its partnership with the parents a notch up by sharing with them the correct techniques and strategies of teaching their children at home.
Reading everything
Another component of the program, called “Reading and Mentoring Others,” gives pupils the value of learning language through interaction and cooperation. A bamboo gong placed at the center of the school is banged during recess, and for two minutes, pupils stop playing and eating. The school is transformed into a noisy, busy place as pupils rush to look for whatever printed materials they could find around the campus to read. Those assigned with partners go to them to read.
“They read everything they could find. From candy wrappers to discarded paint cans and even graffiti painted on mudguards of parked motorcycles,” Antonio says. “When the gong is sounded, every pupil is busy reading.”
The school sees to it that reading becomes a routine so school officials call the gong-banging hour “the 10 O’Clock Habit.” Pupils from Grades 1 to 3 are paired with pupils from Grades 4 to 6 for a 30-minute daily reading mentoring from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m.
“We are also teaching pupils here to value time by coming to school early and avoiding absences. They feel responsible to their partners or when they are assigned to become the day’s reading specialists,” she says.
Perform well
The school also crafted a set of guidelines or “10 commandments” for reading specialists. They are expected to study the word, phrase or sentence and memorize its spelling and Cebuano and Mandaya translations. They should come to school early and not play “while your duty is not yet finished.”
They are asked to teach a “player” (passing pupil) to read if he or she does not know how. They are enjoined to “be kind to all who enter the gate,” and “see to it that the reading shed is clean.”
Jehann Aquilino, a Grade 5 pupil, feels proud teaching English and their native tongue to a fellow Lumad. She is wearing a tribal dress and is pointing confidently to every letter on the flash card as her classmates read: “Fely has a curly hair. Kulot ang buhok ni Fely. Kululot to bo-ok ni Fely.”
Transformation
School officials say the reading program help Matangad pupils perform well in academic competitions by boosting the students’ confidence and nurturing their love for books. Just recently, two products of the program won in district-level science and math quizzes.
“There is really a transformation,” Ramo says. “Not only of the pupils’ interest in learning and appreciation of their culture but also on the attitude of parents toward education, considering very few of them finished even high school.”
Another “program within the program” is called the GHWB or “Go Home With a Book.” Pupils from all grades are allowed to borrow storybooks from the school for two weeks or a month. When they return the books, they are asked five comprehensive questions from the stories they had read and if they can answer at least three questions, they will be allowed to borrow another storybook, and so on.
Pupils having the most books read based on the borrowers’ record are given recognition.
The teachers constantly monitor and evaluate the schoolchildren’s progress through dictation, comprehension test and other methods to measure their performance throughout the school year. Medals are given to specialists and players who have shown corresponding improvements, such as Best in Spelling, Most Comprehensive Reader, Most Improved Reader, Outstanding Reading Partners and Most Wide Reader.
“I feel proud upon seeing my youngest perform his duty at the gate,” beams 47-year-old Nanilda Cotic, Jobert’s mother. “I’m even more excited than him,” she adds.