Bataan village kids hold classes in chapel, convent

DINALUPIHAN, Bataan—For the last three years now, schoolchildren in Barangay (village) Bayan-bayanan have been holding classes in a chapel, a garage and a convent. For the school opening on June 1, parents have been sprucing up these odd learning alternatives instead of their children’s classrooms.

Jose Salonga, the village chief, said Bayan-bayanan Elementary School, built in 2004, had been damaged by landslides and had been ordered abandoned on the recommendation of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

After heavy rains in 2012, a landslide tore through the back of the school, which is located at the foot of a mountain, said Salonga. There were no casualties.

The school was declared unsafe when several cracks were found slicing through some of the classrooms.

Class activities were transferred to a chapel about 200 meters away. Because the chapel was not big enough to accommodate 170 school children, among them Aetas, the garage and the convent also served as classrooms.

Salonga said the government should find suitable land to build a new school, but it had so far failed to do so.

School teacher Maryrose Romano said less than half of the pupils at Bayan-bayanan Elementary School are Aetas, who walk four hours each day to attend classes.

The school’s seven teachers, who handle Grades 1 to 6 pupils, make do with their alternate classrooms.

But the chapel has no electricity and, when it gets extremely warm, the teachers have to find a long extension cord to plug an electric fan, Romano said.

A blackboard serves as a divider to separate Grades 1 and 6. “During Fridays we rearrange the chairs and pews for Mass,” Romano said. Greg Refraccion, Inquirer Central Luzon