New school, free transpo await T'boli young learners in June

MAITUM, Sarangani -- T’boli children of Kalaneg village here
have another reason of going to school come school year 2016-2917 in June.

A newly-completed school
building is awaiting pupils of Lomutan Elementary School after the Department
of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-12) has turned over it to the community
recently.

Bai Zorahayda T. Taha,
DSWD-12 regional director, said on Tuesday that the school building project is
an answer to the education pressing needs of the community, which old and
dilapidated classrooms, were found to be unsafe for children, majority from
T’boli tribe.

The new classrooms will
surely make a difference in the learning process of children,” Taha said in a
statement.

Taha added that the
three-classroom project in Kalaneg is worth P2.66 million with the financial
support from World Bank and constructed through the agency’s community-driven
development (CDD) program, Kalahi-CIDSS.

Kalaneg’s school building is
one of the 190 various community projects carried out under Kalahi-CIDSS in
Region 12 after being scaled up as a national strategy for poverty-reduction,
Taha said.

Prior to its completion, high
ranking World Bank officials paid a
visit in the community as part of the 4th Kalahi-CIDSS implementation support
mission in the country, looking into theprogress of its implementation.

The community was
recognized, headed by Barangay Captain Gary Lee Perrett, for providing vehicle
for free to fetch school children from their homes to school and vice versa,
starting last year.

Aside from the condition of
our classrooms, distance is one of the major factors of the decreasing number
of enrollment year after year,” Perrett said.

According to Perrett, many
school children used to cut their classes in the afternoon and started to hike
back to their homes.

With the new classrooms and free
transportation, Perrett said it will be of great help in encouraging the
villagers to bringtheir children back to school.

Meanwhile, Tyron Jann Villanueva,
area coordinator in Maitum, said that the town is completinga total P14.49
million various projects including schools, health stations and a bridge.

Under the program, according
to Villanueva, the town is now implementing the Makamasang Tugon” phase, an
LGU-led implementation designed to sustain the gains and lessons learned in the
implementation of Kalahi-CIDSS by adopting the CDD as a strategy.

Kalahi-CIDSS, which stands
for Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-A Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of
Social Services, is one of the three core programs of DSWD.

The said program aims to
empower poor and disaster-affected communities to improve access to services by
participating in a more inclusive local planning, budgeting, and implementation
and in the overall affairs of the government. (Hilbert T. Estacion, regional
social marketing officer)