Around Mountain Province

I remember something I read that says, "Whatever you do, you have to choose to be happy." Whether you know that the next 24 hours will be a lot different from what you were used to. That is exactly what I did. I chose to be happy even before I started my journey visiting Grade 1 students in Sagada, Besao and supposedly Natonin but was reassigned to Paracelis.

I really enjoyed my first assignments outside of the usual daily work. I enjoyed giving posttests for Grade 1 and i observed different kind of pupils. Really, Grade 1 teachers should be the best in attitude, especially in patience, and in teaching. Imagine teaching children who would sometimes just look at you as if you are talking of Mars. But, Grade 1 is also one of the most rewarding grades. In this grade, teachers can really see their outputs - whether they have done something or not.

In Sagada, I went to Tanulong Elementary School and Fidelisan Primary School. It's not just to lift Sagada up but these schools topped the posttests I administered. (Well, I have not yet checked the test given to the other schools.)

I saw the beauty of Panabungen being the part of Mountain Province very near the boundaries of Mountain Province, Abra and Ilocos. In fact, the Tirad Pass is so clearly "natitirad." I have been to Besao but never to Catengan and Panabungen. So, going there had been an adventure and I truly enjoyed every minute of it, especially including the great snacks and meals prepared by the very hospitable teachers and school heads in the person of Madam Semon and Madam Agnaonao. (In fact, the teachers of Panabungen ES even went to get fresh shrimps, wading ya tokak. Ulay iman basta men ipabulek et aped men imis ay kanen amed no ipangan isan binayo da. Aye pay di busog ko isdi.)

The difficulty of multi-grade classes is very clear in Camparadi, Paracelis. Imagine a complete elementary school, meaning they offer Grade 1 to 6, with only two teachers. One teacher will teach Grades 1-3 and another for Grades 4-6. Wow, they have to be superwomen to do that and they are. Though the pupils are very few (there are only 10 Grade 1 pupils) still it is hard to prepare for three classes with all the subjects. Added to that is the hardship in going there. It entails hiking. And, though it did not rain for two days, the road is still unpassable by vehicle. Accordingly, a motorbike can but the motorbike can carry you as well as you need to carry it too when the going gets too rough. We preferred to hike for almost six to seven hours to reach Camparadi, which is a combination of Camfiangan and Paradi (the school is in between these two sitios).

I saw several problems in my visit here. Aside from the multi-grade classes, it is so hard to reach the school. Even if the soil is already dry, it is still slippery. If adults find it slippery, how much more to pupils? They also need to cross rivers which get really turbulent during typhoons and rainy seasons. The ili helloare far from each other and the people keep on moving as we have seen along the way. When the soil is not so fertile anymore, they move to a greener pasture. They still have a percentage of nomadism. As I said a while ago, the people are very far from each other so it follows that they have to walk very far distances to reach each other.

The road is not even a road at all. There is a road that reaches the place but it's not usable. It can only be serviceable during the summer if it does not rain for five days or more but there are more rainy months (about 9) in Paracelis than summer so the road is basically useless as a road. By the way, the road reaches kalinga.

The case of Camparadi is not new in Paracelis. In fact with the 30 plus elementary schools, only seven has a 1teacher:1 grade ratio. The rest are combining two or three grades at a time.

I learned a lot and though i earned some wounds i will never forget the lessons that experience taught me again. Experience is really the greatest teacher of all time.