BONTOC, Mountain Province – The House of Representatives approved on third and final reading a number of bills authored by Rep. Maximo Y. Dalog, Jr. seeking for the establishment of an elementary and three secondary educations in the different parts of the province to help in the government’s effort to bring free basic education to the countryside.
One of the bills seeks to establish the Willie Maclinic Elementary School Elementary School in barangay Bacarri, Paracelis town while the other bills seeks to establish the Mabalite National High School in Tadian, the Mayag National High School in Bauko and the Mainit National High School in Bontoc.
The proposed elementary and high schools will be under the supervision, control and maintenance of the education department.
Under the proposed bills, the Education Secretary shall immediately include in the agency’s program the operationalization of the aforesaid schools wherein the funding shall be included in the annual budget of the national government after the effectivity of the proposed laws.
Further, the Education Secretary shall formulate the rules and regulations implementing the provisions of the proposed laws within 120 days after their effectivity.
Dalog claimed that Mountain Province is among the least privileged areas in the country in terms of accessibility to education considering its geographic terrain where children who are interested to attend formal school sometimes have to walk long distances by climbing mountains and even crossing rivers or creeks just to attend their regular classes.
According to him, barangay Bacarri has several sitios which are located at far distances from each other and that pupils from the sitios of Dabburab, Camuan, Makilo, Danggason, and Pandan the will feed into the proposed elementary school located invariably from 5 to 10 kilometers from the existing Dalanao Elementary School, the nearest elementary school in the area.
On the other hand, Lubon National High School–Mabalite Extension is one of the farthest schools in Tadian, about 25 kilometres away from the mother school, with at least 2 hours travel time during fair weather and public transportation is rare. Before the opening of the extension school, students either opt not to continue their studies or walk for more than 3 to 4 hours just to attend classes in the nearest public high school in the town, thus, the proposed creation of the new public high school in the area.
He explained that barangay Mayag is 5 to 10 kilometers away from barangay Guinzadan where the mother school is located. Before the establishment of the extension school in Mayag, students have to walk for almost an hour just so they could attend classes in the nearest public high school resulting to either a lot of students who drop out in the middle of the schoolyear or students who do not perform well.
Moreover, barangay Mainit is about 2 kilometers away from barangay Guina-ang where the mother school is located. Prior to the establishment of the extension school, students have to walk almost 30 to 45 minutes just so they could attend classes in the nearest high school that cause numerous problems on the part of the students and the teachers, thus, the proposed creation of the independent high school in the area.
By Hent
