Sabado, Marso 5, 2011

Being a "Maestrang Bulod"                                                         Being a "Maestrang Bulod"

                                 We all know that teachers are the second parents of children who study in school.Yet, they must be given a special treatment.But can you imagine what kind of  life do teachers have far away from city calledmaestrang Bulod?                                 I was shocked when I learned the life of teachers calledmaestrang Bulod.They are the teachers who teach children in far mountain of Sorsogon.Jay Taruc is a journalist and he presented what life does maestrang Bulod have.He showed how to be a teacher far from their family,friends and the modern of urban city.Gina Camampa is a maestrang Bulod.She left her one month old daughter and husband just to do her duty.She traveled 8 hours to reach the foot of one of the mountains in Sorsogon.She rode a kayak (a small kind of boat) for 3 hours under the burning sun.She reach the school 9:00pm and then fixed her things.The school is also her home during schooldays.There is no electricity to use and no cellphone signal to communicate with their family.                                Why do they want to stay there and teach children then suffer far from their family?It's because they want to teach their children not to be ignorant in modern city.Its unbelievable and good for nothing reason for us,but for them they have the strongest and thickest reason of all.                                After that night, the tomorrow's journey came.Their classroom look miserable because their roof were extremely damage by typhoons.They only have 25% of the blackboard to use and most of all, the students depend on the floor to squat.A  usual grade 2 pupil ages six or seven years old, unlike the students of teacher Gina, her students age are 10-13 and the highest will be 14 years old. The students met their teachers, from 40 students only 17 came.                               Why is that so? Even Gina teach 2nd grade her pupil knows how to cook, wash their own clothes, and many more.The parents of the pupil only depend on their child to help them do the household chores.                               Semestral break and other holidays are like the birthdays of the maestras. They can go to their family and have a family reunion during the end of the month.They only have a monthly income of 9000Php.It's a difficult job but has a low monthly income.                              Why is it too cheap? What if they quit being a maestrang Bulod and look for another job? Our government is not blind nor deaf,they are just playing it with no action at all.                               We can say that every little thing is important and in every teacher we can meet, we can say to them that "Teacher's are heroes."

"Maestrang Bulod" - A school in Sorsogon is so remote that teachers cannot go home everyday. They have to eat and sleep inside their classrooms.