After fleeing bomb threats, ‘lumad’ youth resume studies at UP

DISTANCE LEARNING “Lumad” students do their schoolwork at the “‘bakwit’ school” in UP Diliman after military conflict drove them away from Mindanao.—Mariejo Ramos

In a makeshift classroom at the University of the Philippines College of Home Economics in Diliman, Quezon City,  a “lumad” (indigenous people) student writes the words “Iskolar ng Bayan” (people’s scholar) on his notebook with careful strokes, as he listens to the day’s lesson in Araling Panlipunan (social studies).

He is among the 70 lumad students from Grades 3 to 11 that UP Diliman has been hosting since Feb. 8 at a “bakwit school,” or school for evacuees displaced from Mindanao.

“It is important to know our roots — our common heritage as Filipinos — so we can move forward,” a volunteer teacher from the Raya School of Quezon City tells them.

The bakwit school offers regular classes with volunteer teachers from various Metro Manila schools.

The aim is to help the lumad students finish the curriculum prescribed by the Department of Education (DepEd), after they were displaced from their communities in July last year.

Duterte: Get out of there

President Rodrigo Duterte has accused the communities of conniving with communist rebels and ordered the military to close down the lumad schools.

“Get out of there,” the President told the lumad in July 2017.

“I will use the Armed Forces, the Philippine Air Force. I’ll really have those (schools) bombed because you are operating illegally and you are teaching the children to rebel against government,” he warned.

As many as 73 of 228 lumad schools have closed since the start of the Duterte administration, according to Jeany Rose Hayahay, a volunteer teacher of Salugpongan Ta ‘Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center in Talaingod, Davao del Norte.

Hayahay expressed fears that more lumad schools would be forcibly closed because of the extension of martial law in Mindanao, the militarization of ancestral lands, and the continuing Red tagging of lumad teachers and students.

Moving up

“We miss our simple life in the mountains, but our schools are under attack. So even if we had to move from college to college here in Manila just to continue our studies, we will endure it,” said Alfolo, 19, who comes from the Community Technical College of Southeastern Mindanao in Maco, Compostela Valley.

According to the Save Our Schools Network, seven volunteer teachers from lumad schools in Mindanao have joined their students here in Metro Manila.  Around 50 teachers from UP and other schools have offered to facilitate classes to cover nine subjects, including English, math, science, Filipino,  agriculture, values education, and Mapeh (music, arts, physical education and health).

Thirty Grade 10 students, including Alfolo, are looking forward to their moving-up ceremonies with DepEd on March 29, with the hope that they could finally return to their communities and protect their ancestral land where their families’ lives have been rooted for centuries.

Before she came to Manila, it was clear for Michelle, a Grade 11 student from the Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation in Marilog District, Davao City, that education and empowerment are connected.

All worth it

“We young lumad are tasked with uplifting our communities; getting a proper education will help us do so,” said Michelle, who added that she wanted to take up political science and eventually become a lawyer.

Alfolo, meanwhile, dreams of becoming a teacher so he can “reach out to far-flung communities with no existing educational institutions.”

“It’s important for us to finish our studies so we can expand our worldview and help tackle challenges outside the classroom,” he added.

For volunteer teachers like Hayahay and Mimi Alegre, 21, serving the young lumad through education grounded in community life makes the job worth it even without a paycheck.

“We believe in a unique brand of education—‘makamasa, makabayan at siyentipiko’ (people-oriented, nationalistic and scientific), ” said Alegre.

For Hayahay, the lumad students’ choice to continue their studies is also a form of resistance that rallies national institutions, like UP, to uphold their right to education.