DINALUPIHAN, Bataan — School children in an Aeta village here for the second year 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 the same name.
Asked if she was not contented with the aircon container vans, she answered “masikip po.”
“Malaking bagay po sa amin ang magkaroon ng school building para conducive sa learning ng mga bata. Kahit po aircon itong container van, very crowded po at hindi conducive sa pagtuturo. Hindi katulad ng regular classrooms na masaya ang mga bata,” Grade 1 teacher Richelle Tria said.
School principal Raffy Abilong said they have for the present school year 187 children enrolled from kindergarten to Grade 6. There are seven school teachers that he said were enough for the number of children.
“May pitong container van classrooms na ginagamit namin mula July last year hanggang ngayon. Bigay ito ng Dinalupihan municipal government sa ilalim ni Mayor Maria Angela Garcia,” he said.
Abilong said their woes finally were over after the construction of two new school buildings stated October, 2017.
The two-storey buildings, funded for P12.4 million by the provincial government headed by Gov. Albert Garcia, have four classrooms each.
The new school buildings are 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 in 2012.
The school lot was declared dangerous being a landslide-prone area.
He said that 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.
He said that they found it hard to look for another lot for the school, the area being under the Aeta ancestral domain. “Ngayon nabigyan na ng solusyon ang hinahanap naming lupa,”Abitong said.
The Aeta Tribal Council in Bayan-Bayanan donated the school land. Construction foreman Joel Reyes said that each school building has a fl oor area of 22.5 meters by 9 meters while each classroom has an area of 7 meters by 9 meters.
