Tukuran, ZDS – Access to education still remains one of the most pressing concerns of the people in the rural area where many disadvantaged and vulnerable sectors come from. Several students in these areas still rely on makeshift classrooms, or if not, lose their means of attending school. This holds true for the children in Barangay Man-ilan in the municipality of Tukuran, Zamboanga del Sur.

Almost 10 kilometers away from the highway, traveled through rough road by a few habal-habal (motor for hire) vehicles, Man-ilan elementary school seems isolated which makes it almost impossible for outsiders to reach.

“Sa una ma’am gamay lang gyud ang mga estudyante namu. Katung mga naka-enrol diri, kasagaran ga-transfer pud kay kung ga-ulan, matuluan gyud sila kay murag gi-himu-himu lang man ang ilahang room. So ang tendency, dili na lang sila mureport kay makit-an man gyud sa mga ginikanan ang ilahang sitwasyon. Ang uban nga diri gapuyo pero sa laing nga eskwela ga-sulud, mu-baclay pa sa pikas nga baryo kay didtu maayu man ang classrooms.”(Before, we only had a small number of students here. Most of those who were enrolled here would eventually transfer because when it rains they would get wet as they only occupied a makeshift classroom. So the tendency was, they don’t attend school anymore because their parents could see their situation. The others who are supposed to be enrolled here, needed to take a longer route at the other side of the village, just to get to the other schools because that’s where they find more convenient to attend.) Nezaida Labrador, Man-ilan Teacher recalls the situation of their school before and how it affected the students.

That day, Nezaida together with other teachers were busy conducting a cooking activity participated by both teachers and students as part of their nutrition month celebration in school. She added that before, they didn’t have a conducive place to carry out such activity.

 

“Duha ka room lang sa una, so ga-schedule gyud mi unsa grade ang mugamit anang room sa kanang orasa. So there was practically no means for us to have this kind

of activity before.” (We only had two classrooms then. So we had to schedule who gets to use the room at this particular time.)

This kind of situation lasted a little longer as people were a bit passive in taking part in community development efforts initiated by the government.

“Ah, gamay lang gyud mu attend mga anang asembliya sa una. Mga lima, daku na nang dyes katau. Siguro pud, maulaw sila, kay basig dili sila kasabut. Ana ba.”(Only a few would attend barangay assemblies before. Five people, 10 was already a significant number then. Maybe because, they were reluctant that they might not understand whatever is being discussed there.) BSPMC Chairperson Mamelito Butir shared how government projects were received by the people few years back.

This year, particularly on January 28, was no ordinary day for Man-ilan, as community members themselves started the construction of 1 unit, 4-classroom building through Kalahi-CIDSS program adapting the Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Process (GPBP).

What was once referred to as the Bottom-Up Budgeting (BUB) is now called Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Process (GPBP). It is a planning and budgeting approach of formulating budget proposals of government agencies which addresses the needs of the poor municipalities through soft and hard projects. These projects are pre-identified in the Local Poverty Reduction Action Plan as endorsed by the basic sectors and civil society organizations.

“Nagsugud na mi dayun. Ang katung problema lang sa una, kana bang syempre ang kinaiya sa tawu nay dili natu mapasabut, pero daghan mi ug kalihukan para mapasabut lang sila. Sa kaluuy sa ginoo, gi-succeed da gihapun ang among tumong. Kaayuhan da gihapun sa community. Basta amu silang gipasabut kay naa ta’y proyekto gihatag sa kalahi. Kinahanglan mu tabang ta. Tabang lang pud dayun sila.” (We started immediately. However, the problem at first was of course, people are individually different; there are times that we can hardly let them understand what our supposed responsibilities are, but we made a lot of effort for them to comprehend and even appreciate the project. With God’s grace, we still succeeded in realizing our objective and that is for the welfare of the community. We let them know that we have a project given by kalahi and gpb and we need to help each other, and so they right away did.) Mamelito related.

Men and women of different sectors came together to volunteer and participate in the construction of the classrooms with total cost amounting to Php 2,572,424.00.

Now, Man-ilan elementary students no longer have to put up with makeshift classrooms, especially during the on-set of rainy weather. Consequently, the  new  facility  has  encouraged more  children to   enrol in the village’s   primary school,  increasing  the  number of  enrolees  to  136  at  present  as compared to on less than 100 last year.

“Apan sa pagtukud sa kining classroom, gi-pull out namu ang mga estudyante nga residente diri sa Man-ilan pero enrolled sa mga eskwela sa laing barangay. Kay  gusto pud namu magamit gyud nila ang proyekto nga para ilaha. Di na sila mu-baclay sa kalayu.”(Upon the completion of the project, we immediately pulled out the students who reside in Man-ilan but were enrolled in different school located in other barangay. We also wanted them to benefit the decent classroom that was purposely made for them. They no longer have to take a long walk.) Nezaida added.

Thus, what seemed elusive for the students of Man-ilan to access education before, is now a reality which community people themselves have made possible through participation, transparency and accountability.

 

The essence of GPBP is partnership and harnessing the active involvement and participation of the people in governance. With the continuous implementation of GPBP, poor municipalities like Tukuran will now look forward to a better future where the government and the citizenry work together towards one common goal. ###LMSM