Eleven-year-old Christine Balogbog walks for more than an hour to get to her school in Barangay Ubogon in the midwestern town of Asturias.
But when she starts her classes, she has to squeeze in with around 30 other students from a different grade in a single classroom that is supposed to cater only to one level.
This was why when she, together with over a hundred other students of Ubogon Elementary School learned that their school will be having two new classrooms, she couldn’t help hide her excitement.
“Nalipay kaayo ko kay nindot kaayo among bagong classroom. Dili na mi maghuot sa uban studyante (I’m very happy because we now have a very nice and new classroom. We don’t have to squeeze in with other students anymore),” she told Cebu Daily News yesterday during the inauguration and turnover of several projects in the third district by the Cebu provincial government.
Balogbog represented her classmates during the ribbon-cutting of their two new classrooms together with government officials led by Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III and Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale yesterday morning.
The mountain Barangay of Ubogon is located six to seven kilometers from the highway. In order to get to the school, the Capitol officials’ convoy had to pass through narrow, rough roads and even cliffs.
The two-classroom school building, which cost P1.4 million to build, was turned over by the provincial government to school officials and students along with two other school buildings and a road concreting project in other towns in the district.
Myrna Tayan, Ubogon Elementary School head, said that when she started teaching in May 2014, she found out that her school really lacked classrooms.
“Then I started to pray to the Lord. I’m thankful when I heard that the barangay captain asked for a school building. Nilukso gyud akong kasing-kasing (my heart really jumped),” she said.
Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale said that Capitol really had to prioritize which areas to give projects to considering the province’s limited resources against the unlimited needs of its constituents.
Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III said among those prioritized for the projects were mountain barangays since these are the areas with the problematic students-to-classrooms ratio.
“These were studied by the province to see which towns really need classrooms. Luoy kaayo mga bata diri (pity the children) they have to walk for how many kilometers to get to their schools,” Davide said.
Aside from Ubogon, the province also turned over similar two-classroom schools buildings to Cabiangon Elementary School in Pinamungajan town and Bogo Elementary School in Aloguinsan town.
The province also inaugurated a P26 million road concreting project in the town of Tuburan. The 1.8 kilometer long road project connects the barangays of Poblacion, Cogon, Alegria and Marmol in the town.
In his speech during the turnover of the school buildings, Davide asked both teachers and students to take care of the classrooms that were given to them.
“This has no name. This is for you. This is for our children. Please take good care of this building, ” Davide said.The head teachers in the different schools assured Capitol officials that they will take care of the new buildings.