The farm school without a farm

PESA

Don’t expect to find a farm or students planting rice at Dagatan Family Farm School in Barangay Dagatan, Lipa City.

Despite the name, no actual agricultural work happens on campus.

The school is more about preparing students in the communities it serves for the family livelihood or enterprise which, in many rural areas, is still farming.

But to learn about agriculture and other enterprises, students go home or on field visits to other people’s farms or businesses. In Dagatan, the Philippines’ pioneering farm school, “farm” now encompasses agriculture-

related and other small- and medium-scale enterprises.

The 80 students of Dagatan, which opened in 1988 with 36 enrollees, come from families involved in farming, poultry and livestock raising, sari-sari stores, buying and selling, and other modest enterprises.

an entry in a student’s communication book on hog raising

They are studying not only to earn a high school diploma but also to help manage or increase the productivity of the family business and, perhaps, eventually take over from their parents.

As school director Randy B. Pesa says, “They study even as they work,” a reality in many farming communities where schools often “lose” students during critical seasons when additional hands are needed on the farms.

Pesa says many students find, even before they graduate, solutions to their businesses’ problems and are able to help their livelihood grow. As a result, many drop the idea of going to college or postpone it to nurture their businesses.

It is the outcome that the Department of Education is hoping for with the Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K to 12) basic education scheme, which aims to offer graduates more options by providing them skills that will make them employable, especially in their own communities, after high school.

Dagatan teaches students the basic academic competencies DepEd requires. It also follows DepEd’s 10-month academic calendar.

Where the school significantly differs from the mandated routine is by alternating formal classroom and home instruction. Every other week, students stay at home to help in household chores and the family enterprise.

While academics are not completely out of mind during this time as students have class work to do, the homestay is meant to be a mutually enriching experience for both youngsters and adults.

In a journal called a communication book, students record their experiences, what they learned helping with household chores or the family business. It shows the kids’ progress and what they learned during field visits, discussions with professionals and resource persons, which they are expected to share with their parents.

‘Paksa’

A student stands up, eager to be called to answer a question

Pesa says that every year, the school board chooses a paksa, the unifying theme for the year’s instruction that will guide field visits and professional discussions. For agricultural matters, for instance, discussions with experts from the University of the Philippines Los Baños and successful farmers are organized.

Exposure to different means of livelihood and enterprises, Pesa says, helps children decide what they want to be.

The students’ individual profiles and consultations with parents help determine the year’s paksa.

The theme anchors class discussions and is integrated into all the work. “We try to connect the paksa to every lesson,” Pesa says, although he admits this is not always easy to do in mathematics.

Guided by their tutors, the students prepare their questions before outings. “Kids have to learn to think and to write….

If they learn how to ask

questions they will develop self-confidence… . They learn to write, develop creativity and communication skills,” Pesa says.

THE MODEST farm school campus

“If there are questions that were not answered during the field trip, there will be [professional discussions],” Pesa adds.

Parents’ commitment

Field visits and discussions can involve more than just enterprise. Pesa says they visited, for instance, the community’s “model family” to help students clarify or receive guidance on  some domestic issues.

During the homestay, tutors visit the students to make sure learning continues. Pesa says the first requirement of parents with children in Dagatan is their commitment.

Parents have to be actively involved in their kids’ education. At home, they have to make sure school work is done and children complete every chore.

Parents have to be present during the tutor’s family visits. They are expected to give an honest assessment if they want to help their kids develop properly.

The homestay and extensive interaction with the community and experts are all part of an important aspect of learning at Dagatan, what Pesa calls formation. Dagatan education has a very strong spiritual and moral underpinning, owing to the fact that its founders had links to the Catholic religious group Opus Dei founded by St. Josemaria Escriva.

Pesa says parents also learn and “achieve formation” because they read and discuss what the kids write in their communication books. Many parents say they learned, through their kids, new ways of doing things and solutions to problems.

Parents also have to write or have their children write their personal reflections.

Nonsectarian

Despite its historical ties to Opus Dei, Pesa stresses the school is nonsectarian and open to children of all faiths. Family interactions, field visits and professional discussions are meant to give students skills, values, knowledge and attitudes required for success in enterprise and good citizenship, he says. The values they teach, he stresses, are universal.

Even the formation component is not strictly faith-based. “We believe the strongest formation comes from parents,” Pesa says. The religious can only support what the parents are doing.

For every level, the school draws up a formation plan. First, kids and parents decide what the year should cover, then stakeholders, including local officials and members of the community, review the plan to ensure what they feel are important are covered.

Pesa says the school’s main objective is for kids to learn about the different enterprises in their communities. During the first two years of the three-year junior high school program, students try to learn the theories as much as they can. In third year, they choose what they want to do and apply what they learn.

They undergo on-the-job training (OJT) in the enterprise they choose, which is not necessarily the family business. They may also start something different.

Pesa says Dagatan adheres to the K to 12 basic principle by  preparing kids to either pursue higher education or a livelihood upon graduation. The school’s overarching goal is really to promote local enterprises and agriculture in Batangas.

Pesa says the OJT, learning by doing, entrepreneurship—

hallmarks of technical-vocational instruction—have all been part of Dagatan education from the beginning.

As befits a farm school, faculty members of Dagatan are mainly agriculture graduates. But they earned units in teaching and passed the Licensure Examination for Teachers. Pesa says that except for one, faculty members are all alumni of Dagatan.

Starting as an all-free institution, the school now charges fees but is also encouraging people to sponsor students. Pesa says the school does not believe in doles. Next school year, Dagatan will charge the “discounted rate” of P20,800 per student. Pesa says the actual cost of education at Dagatan is about P35,000.

Boys school

Although Dagatan wants to recruit more students, Pesa says they want to keep classes small because of the nature of the instruction. The school is also exclusive to boys. Pesa explains, “The tutors are all men because of the goal of formation. We believe it is easier [to achieve the goal]  if people of the same gender work together.”

There is  an all-girls school, the first in the country, in Balete, also in Batangas, he says.

The 1.3 hectares of land on which Dagatan stands was donated by the Ayala group.

Since it opened 25 years ago, it has graduated a total of 578 students. At present, the enrollment consists of 23 Grade 7, 38 second year and  19 third year students.

Pesa says they hope to start offering senior high school, starting with Grade 10 in 2016, then Grade 11 in 2017 and Grade 12 the year after.

The farm school concept, which originated in Europe, was institutionalized recently with the passage of Republic Act No. 10618, An Act Establishing Rural Farm Schools as Alternative Delivery Mode of Secondary Education and Appropriating Funds Therefor.

Authored by the late Rep. Salvador Escudero III of Sorsogon and Rep. Sharon S. Garin of party-list Aambis-Owa,  the law provides: “Rural farm schools are hereby established to provide an alternative delivery mode of secondary education.” It also states, “The rural farm schools shall apply a flexible learning philosophy….”

Under the law signed by  President Aquino in September, “The curriculum of the rural farm school shall follow the core secondary education curriculum of the DepEd with add-on courses focused on agrifishery arts.”

The law stresses focus on entrepreneurship “to revitalize rural economies and repopulate rural communities.”