Challenge of Children in Pakpak
~A step toward the "education for all"~ 
"I study hard because I don't like to be made fool by Tagalog people." (Bunio Calmpit, 11 year- old boy)
He is one of more than 20 pupils at the association-run-informal school in sitio Pakpak. He is learning mathematics, Filipino (national language) and values education since last year. It is the big challenge for him to study how to read and write. So is for their parents who are illiterate. This 11-year-old boy and his classmates may change the village some day.
Pakpak is a small village of Alangan group, a sub-tribe of the Mangyan people. It is located at the upstream of the river Amnay, who draws the boundary line of the two municipalities: Sta. Cruz and Sablayan. There's no real road but the wild water to get there. You have to walk along and across the river about an hour from the national road. The river is too deep to across in the rainy season and the wind is too strong to walk in the dry season. The raging stream might drown you if it rains hard. The life there seems too hard to live but there is an enthusiasm in the school.
Our association opened the literacy program there in 2000, aiming the "education for all".
Here in Mindoro, there are still many children who don't go to school. Many can't afford it financially and others have no schools in their places.
And few teachers like to be assigned in the mountains. In fact, the schools in the places where majority of the Mangyan people are living are not functioning. Pakpak is lucky, really.
"They are good pupils." Hermie Panagsagan said. "They love studying and have made a rapid progress for reading. Mathematics is, too, their favorite. Teaching here is really fun for me. I feel at home here with them." Hermie would be a teacher of all the Mangyan children in the mountains. And she is our first assigned teacher in Pakpak.
Hermie was once our scholar. After finishing her studies at college in Batangas City, she joined us as a teacher.
"I hope they learn to speak more fluent Filipino language. Speak good Filipino is essential for the better life." Hermie said. "People in Pakpak have their own dialect (Alangan dialect) and the children have few chances to learn the Filipino. It often causes the painful misunderstanding. To discipline them is very important, too. Children here are not accustomed to taking bath. Cleaning their body and the surroundings, washing their hands before meals are all necessary for their good health. And to learn the values like being punctual and what's right and wrong is vital for their spiritual growth."
"Ma'am Hermie is happy if I study well but she is angry with me if I lie." (Bryan Manango, 12 year-old boy)
All the pupils are very fun of playing basketball and often spent whole day for it before but now they know their schedule. Study is always the first priority.
"I love Filipino and mathematics and am dreaming to go to school in town." (Joseph Salbador, 10 year-old boy)
Their parents have never had chance to go to school. They even didn't have slightest idea what was the school at all. But now they are learning from their children how important is the education for their life. They hope their children can live a better life through the education.
In such a silent, small and difficult place, something good is dawning. Still a bit staggered, they're learning something very important. A secret of the happiness is not laid in the dependency but the very struggle to acquire the new knowledge.
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