Drop-outs in conflict zones return to school in Kidapawan
KIDAPAWAN CITY – A number of school drop-outs from a tribal community here - many of them displaced by armed conflicts - have returned to their school.
Jaime Guadalquiver, head teacher of Puas Inda Integrated School at Barangay Amas here, said it was difficult convincing parents of these children to send them back to school.
“I looked for them. I walked kilometers just to find these drop-outs and encourage them to return to school. It was not that easy,” said Guadalquiver.
These children dropped out from their classes last October when fighting between Moro rebels and government troops erupted at Sitio Nazareth located along the boundary of Barangays Amas and Patadon.
Ilonggo settlers and Moro inhabitants had also clashed while claiming they owned land at Sitio Nazareth, which records later showed was actually under the reservation area of the Central Mindanao Agriculture Research Center of the Department of Agriculture in Region 12. Children traumatized by war Guadalquiver said that many of these children were still experiencing the trauma from the various armed conflicts in the area.
Saskia, a Grade four pupil, said that mere sound of a gun burst could send her running to the woods.
She said they used to take cover in the woods when gun battles erupted between in October that killed two persons, one of them a village watchman.
As such, Sunshine and Mark, both grade two pupils, stopped going to school last year after their parents decided to leave Sitio Nazareth.
On Monday, Guadalquiver saw Sunshine and Mark inside their classroom.
“I am fulfilled seeing these children back to school. I know how important education is to them,” said the head teacher.
Zone of peace With the traumatic experience of their students during armed conflicts, school and community officials and the Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) of Puas Inda, pushed hard to declare their school as ‘zone of peace.’
As a peace zone, the school cannot be used as temporary shelter by any armed group nor could it be turned into an evacuation site.
Meantime, Guadalquiver said he has used his own funds to construct a makeshift building with four classrooms for high school students.
He has also asked help from friends working at the Government Service and Insurance System (GSIS) in North Cotabato for funds to buy woven oil palm strips that they used as walls.
“The lumber we used as foundation were taken from fallen Gemelina trees while the makeshift building were built by members of the Special Action Forces of the Philippine National Police,” he said.