A Teacher Onturtleisland

When our politicians say that education is the most important service our country needs, I wonder whether they are sincere or just waxing rhetorical for their campaigns. It would seem that despite the importance we give to education, the reality is far from its true value.

I am among the few fortunate, or as some would say unfortunate, to experience this first hand. As a volunteer teacher in a remote school on the outlying Turtle Islands in Tawi-Tawi, the problem of quality education is a daily reality faced by the entire community. Together with a co-volunteer from the University of the Philippines Gurung Pahinungod program, we teach elementary and high school children who are extremely talented yet hindered by the limitations imposed upon them by the system.

We live in a predominantly Muslim community on a small island called Taganak which is just slightly bigger than Luneta park. Everyday, we march off to school at eight in the morning, following our students who arrive much earlier. Between the two of us, we teach Math, Science and English for both elementary and high school students and Economics for high school students.

Each day brings new challenges as well as frustrations. Sometimes, the feeling is personal because of an unsolved problem like a poorly taught lecture because you lacked the right teaching aids. Other times, you feel frustrated at the glaring inadequacy of the education they receive. Instead of discussing with my students the joys of reading and writing, I have to return to their ABCs and figures of speech. When my co-teacher Sigrid wants to teach them algebra, she must first spend two weeks teaching the difference between positive and negative numbers. And this is for high school students. What more for elementary?

Since we lack material resources, including 24-hour electricity, we have to make do with chalktalk or writing everything down on the blackboard which consumes much time. Lessons that should be studied at home are studied in class since there are not enough textbooks to go around. In order to teach language adequately it is important for young students to do written and oral exercises repeatedly both in school and at home. But this is difficult considering that we have around 50 to 80 students in our Grade 5 class. I laugh now as I look back at the days I would raise my arms and cry to heaven, "My kingdom for a mimeograph machine!"

Aside from their academic problems–and there are more than enough of them–they must also deal with their environment. In a barrio where fishing is the leading source of livelihood next to turtle egg collection, many of my students are forced to miss class to help their parents in the family trade. Or, because of poor health conditions, they become sick. The family is always the first consideration so the parents decide who among their many children will study, work or be married off.

I have a 14-year-old Grade 5 student whose mother forced her to marry an older man because they were poor. She felt so depressed and cried in class for a week. Her saving grace was that she demanded from her husband that she continue her studies because it was the only thing she had left. Thankfully, he did not object.

Hers and so many other stories of my students fill my time when I am not teaching. Some are indeed sad but most are filled with joys and dreams and questions of seemingly trivial matters, such as who is my crush on the island, do I like to sing Westlife songs, and can I dance like the Sex Bomb dancers. It may appall some of our more prudent Filipinos but that is their way of communicating and learning, through our pop culture.

With every challenge and frustration there are always blessings and good days. Students who show even the slightest interest in class by flashing a smile can lift up a teacher’s spirit no end, especially during the low days. Once, after class, I was giving a short sermon to several of my naughty students about doing assignments on time and listening to the teacher, when one of the noisier students suddenly patted my head as if to calm me down. He had a smile that seemed to be saying, "We know, thank you." I was shocked into a puzzling silence. From then on, I never had a problem with them.

Taganak and its sister islands make up the Turtle Islands, a transnational group of islands famous for being one of the few remaining breeding grounds for Green and Hawksbill sea turtles, more popularly known as pawikan. It straddles the border of Sabah, Malaysia so closely that at night, from where I live, I can see the street lights of Sandakan. The islanders take advantage of this proximity to enter Malaysia and find better jobs there. Those who stay on the island usually have family or business connections in Malaysia.

Aside from fishing, turtle eggs are heavily collected in most of the islands and sold for P4 or P5 per egg. This highly endangers the future of the pawikan population in Southeast Asia and the world. Thus, education on the islands takes on a visible environmental bias that–together with efforts by WWF Philippines–hopes to protect and conserve this unique phenomenon for the future. Slowly, I believe my students have begun to understand that the beautiful environment they now enjoy needs to be taken care of and not taken for granted.

I have lived on the island for five months, with another three to go, often craving for the creature comforts that I enjoyed in the city. Yet, surrounding me is the vast ocean with its abundant fish and marine life, the deep yellow-orange sunrises and violet-red sunsets which begin and end my day, the call to prayer from the local Masjid which acts as my timepiece, and the endless blue horizon which becomes my best form of entertainment.

The island is beautiful all right, but what makes it even more unbearably wonderful is that it isn’t just an island to me, but a community of people where I belong. And like my fellow volunteers in other areas of the country and from different programs, we humbly realize a simple truth: that what we take for granted ends up being what matters the most.

Our educational system is not totally hopeless. Despite the odds against them, students in our country are still able to make do with what they have. The little efforts to improve the system have, however, sadly remained inadequate. Once in a while, a new school building is constructed or some politician will donate money, but that tokenism does not solve the problem. It is inconsistent and in fact, degrades the system by making it dependent on the machinations of politicians and top officials.

While I have ready criticisms, I admit that there are no easy, quick-fix solutions. A problem such as our educational system has been caused by years of neglect and corruption; it cannot be changed in just one term. Only forward looking officials will be able to make the needed changes. In the meantime, while we wait for them to do their jobs, I will do mine, together with my co-teachers. And I hope and pray that my students will one day become the change they too wish to see in their lives.