In Batangas school, mentors are aged 9, 8

MANILA, Philippines - At Gumapak Elementary School in Tuy, Batangas, a group of children huddle around their teachers, listening intently as they are taught how to count and read.

If the children feel at ease in this learning environment, it’s because their teachers happen to be practically their peers at only eight and nine years old.

Meet Nicole Ashley Basco and Jean Karen Bayaborda, dedicated teachers who are children themselves, to some 40 pupils at the Gumapak Elementary school.

The elementary school is located at the foot of the Miyauan mountain, a poor, remote area in Talon Kanluran, municipality of Tuy, Batangas. The school is accessible only by narrow and dusty dirt roads that become impassable on rainy days.

Here, the reality of lack of teachers and facilities affects the lives of impoverished students. Classified as a satellite school, Gumapak has little to offer in terms of standard facilities. The children are dirt poor and have never known or seen a Jollibee fastfood or an SM mall.

But although the odds are stacked against them, the children from Gumapak are never discouraged to go to school. Like Nicole and Jean, they walk kilometers to school just to learn. Jean and Nicole are determined to impart the little they know to the struggling students.

Nicole and Jean said teaching is not a choice but a daily mission and “the most natural thing to do.”

“Masaya po kami kung nakakapagturo sa mga Grade 1 at Grade 2 pupils,” explained Jean and Nicole, who expressed satisfaction teaching though they have yet to learn how to do the basic lesson plan.

Nicole is in third grade and regularly walks two kilometers to school and helps the pupils with their lessons in English.

Jean and Nicole became teachers because one of their teachers figured in a motorcycle accident last March and had to rest, leaving only one teacher, Rosario “Chato” Contigo, with the responsibility of teaching students from grades 1 to 4.

Contigo then decided to delegate some of her responsibilities to Jean and Nicole, her top two pupils in grade 3.

“Sabi ni Ma’am Chato, kailangan daw pong tulungan yung mga mahihina (Teacher said we have to help the slower ones),” Jean said.  

 “There was little choice,” said Mrs. Mercedes Magnaye, Head Teacher of Lumbangan Elementary School, who supervises Gumapak. 

“Besides, it is part of our peer teaching system. These girls are normally tasked to help. Believe it or not, Gumapak is a performing school,” she said.

Last week, the efforts of the two young girls were noticed by members of the Philippine Air Force, (PAF) who came for a visit.

While coordinating with local barangay officials on the conduct of their field training exercise (FTX), NCO School personnel noticed the very young teachers and snapped some pictures. They’ve shown it to Maj. Gen. Rolando Capacia, the chief of the PAF’s Air Education and Training Command, based in Lipa City.

Capacia immediately directed that Jean and Nicole be given recognition.

General Capacia, now  PAF Vice Commander said he remembered his younger days when he was also struggling to learn and go to school.

Last March, prior to the start of the NCOs field training exercise, the command not only singled out the two girls but embraced the whole school.

The PAF and every NCO student pooled their resources and gave donations of school bags, educational supplies and slippers. 

They also installed two ceiling fans in the two classrooms.

Last March 8, Jean and Nicole, accompanied by their teachers and respective mothers, were awarded certificates of recognition at the municipal plaza of Tuy. They also received token cash awards.

The awarding was done during the first civic action activity of the PAF in Tuy, which consisted of a public film showing, concert at the park, silent drill exhibitions by the Officer Candidate School and All-Female 710th Special Operations Wing team, free medical and dental services for over a thousand needy patients, daylong distribution of medicines, and even free haircuts.

“Jean and Nicole are two shining examples of very young achievers who will definitely have accelerated paths to the future. We are happy to recognize them. They reflect the PAF qualities of vision, hard work and unselfish service,” Capacia told Tuy local officials.