Lumads protest DepEd order closing Agusan Sur high school

BUTUAN CITY — While other parents elsewhere bewail the lack of classrooms, those in Barangay Panagangan, La Paz, Agusan del Sur found their children having no school at all.

This, after the Caraga office of the Department of Education (DepEd), headed by regional director Celedonio Layon, closed down the Panagangan National High School on the ground that it is located just 800 meters from another school, the privately owned Mindanao Christian Academy.

In his three-page closure order, Layon said this violates the law and a DepEd directive mandating that a school should be out of another school’s two-kilometer radius.

Layon even noted that La Paz municipal engineer Emiliano Ramos had certified that the Panagangan National High School was indeed just 800 meters away from the Mindanao Christian Academy.

Last Thursday, lumads (highlanders), parents and officials of Barangay Panagangan brought their protest against the public high school’s closure to the attention of DepEd officials, led by Undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz, who graced the ninth anniversary celebration of the DepEd regional office here.

In a resolution, the Barangay Panagangan council, led by chairman Rodulfo Carumba Jr., appealed the closure order, arguing that the required two-kilometer distance between two schools can be waived "when a nearby existing private or public school cannot accommodate students seeking admission."

The barangay officers added that the La Paz National High School is nine kilometers away from Panagangan, thus the transportation cost will be an added burden to parents.

Dante Francisco, an officer of the parent-teacher association of the Panagangan National High School, said the school’s closure runs counter to the DepEd’s mandate of ensuring "education for all."

"Education is the only equalizer for us poor people to uplift our standard of living... Here an agency of the government which is supposed to help us is now the one depriving us (of the right) to educate ourselves," he said.

"What the DepEd is doing is the reverse. They closed down a school that catered to children of indigenous people and poor families," another parent added.