DINALUPIHAN, Bataan — For the second year now, school children in an Aeta village here continued to hold classes in seven container vans, pending completion of construction of a new school building.
Ruby Paule, 11-year-old Aeta girl in Grade 6, said she was happy that at long last after six years, they will have a school building and classrooms of their own.
Air-conditioned container vans serve as classrooms of the Bayan-Bayanan Elementary School in the upland village of Bayan-Bayanan in Dinalupihan.
Asked if she was not contented with the air-conditioned container vans, she answered “masikip po (It is crowded).”
“It is good to have school building for the conducive learning environment of the children. Even though the container van is aircon, it is very crowded and not conductive for teaching. Unlike regular classrooms where the pupils are happy,” said Grade 1 Teacher Richelle Tria.
School principal Raffy Abilong said they have for the present school year 187 children enrolled from kindergarten to Grade 6.
Abilong said there are seven school teachers that were enough for the number of children.
“There are seven container van classrooms being used since July last year until now. These container van classrooms were given by the Dinalupihan municipal government under Mayor Maria Angela Garcia,” he said.
Abilong said their woes finally were over after the construction of two new school buildings started October 2017.
The two-storey buildings, funded for PHP12.4 million by the provincial government headed by Gov. Albert Garcia, have four classrooms each.
The new school buildings were scheduled for completion on August 2018.
The principal said they lost their old school when it was hit by a landslide during the onslaught of habagat (southwest monsoon) in 2012. The school lot was declared dangerous being a landslide-prone area.
He said since then, they evacuated to the barangay plaza where they held classes in hot, crowded and poorly-lighted huts and chapel until the arrival of the container vans.
Abilong added they found it hard to look for another lot for the school, the area being under the Aeta ancestral domain.
The Aeta Tribal Council in Bayan-Bayanan donated the school land.
Construction foreman Joel Reyes said each school building has a floor area of 22.5 meters by nine meters while each classroom has an area of seven meters by nine meters. (Ernie Esconde/PNA)
