Babatngon school draws strength from students, community benefactors

MANILA, Philippines - Just how powerful is hope? If faith can move mountains, can hope make miracles happen too?

For more than 300 elementary students from a small school in the municipality of Babatngon in Leyte, the answer is a resounding yes.

The miracle comes in the form of a P1.5 million project for the rehabilitation and refurbishment of their two-classroom, one-story school building.

For years, the students’ sheer hope for better education and a brighter future has been powerful enough to prop up the dilapidated walls of their old school building.

Constructed before World War II, Governor E. Jaro Elementary School in Babatngon, Leyte was destroyed during the Japanese occupation in 1944. It was renovated in 1955, but was damaged anew when Typhoon Frank wreaked havoc in northeastern Leyte in 2008. Due to lack of funds, the school has not been repaired since then.

In spite of these circumstances, students from one generation to another persevered and continued going to the rundown school – all for the sake of quality education, regardless of the physical appearance of the building.

Battered by war and typhoons, but seemingly indestructible, the building’s strength mirrors the unbreakable spirit and hope of the students, parents, and teachers.

Their contagious optimism and faith in the goodness of people was evident when a small group of employees from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) visited Governor E. Jaro Elementary School in June this year.

The school, situated in the same barangay as NGCP’s Babatngon Substation, was a beneficiary of the corporation’s Balik Eskwela 2010 project. At the beginning of the current schoolyear, power transmission service provider NGCP distributed bags and school supplies in Babatngon and other selected host communities. More than 70,000 students from 174 public elementary schools nationwide benefitted from the project.

Based on field reports, enrollment figures increased when the recipients in the communities found out that NGCP was handing out school supplies. Parents told the teachers that they initially could not send their children to school because they did not have the means to buy the necessary school supplies.

Now, the corporation is taking its advocacy for education a step further by spearheading and sponsoring the building repairs which will provide the much needed classrooms to accommodate more student enrollees.

Governor E. Jaro Elementary School, in particular, saw an increase in student enrollment from 246 students last year to 321 students this school year. School administrators had to add another section for Grade 2 and provide another classroom for the pre-elementary class, which has 75 students taking their classes in two sessions due to the limited classroom space.

Just as important as the bags, notebooks, pencils and other tools is a proper learning environment that will help students perform better and develop their individual skills and capabilities.

So just how powerful is hope? Apparently, powerful enough to help build schools and dreams.

Through the miracle of sharing, giving, and believing, neither war nor typhoon could bring Babatngon down.

NGCP is working closely with the local government of Babatngon, the Department of Education, and the Governor E. Jaro Parents-Teachers Association to implement the project. The groundbreaking ceremony for the rehabilitation of the two-classroom, one-story school building took place at Governor E. Jaro Elementary School, Babatngon, Leyte on Nov. 12 2010. The project is expected to be completed in the next two to three months.