By Marivic G. Rosario
In terms of a small and unknown barangay’s effort to put its school children on a much wider intellectual map, this one will take your breath away.
Sadsadan Trail Elementary School has been participating in School Press Conferences yearly since School Year 2008-2009. By any reckoning this was late. The yearly contest has been going on for ages. Participation, however, takes not just the intellectual promise of school children, it requires quite a bit of financial resources and the sacrifices of teachers to mentor their pupils– a time consuming and energy zapping endeavor.
But better late than never. The stakeholders of the school took the plunge of joining the contest. They had to rely on synergy– by pooling whatever resources that could be contributed by the teachers, parents and the barangay through its officials– and were able to send a delegation in School Year 2008 to 2009 and had been doing so year after year thereafter. The rest is history. As would be shown later here, the plunge or that first step led to an achievement not to be sneezed at.
The better part of the story, however, is what cooperation and sacrifices could achieve. From any angle, Sadsagan is just a small place, its school is just a typical rural school. There is nothing extraordinary about these. But there is something extraordinary about its people, about its pupils, about their teachers or the leadership of the school. The extraordinary thing is their willingness to cooperate and undertake sacrifices for the sake of their children, of their academic or intellectual future. For the School Press Confernces involve brains and the ability to communicate. These are what pupils and students need in order to be successful in any chosen career. A genius might be a genius but without the ability to communicate one’s throughts, such genius will just wither and pass on to the grave without society benefitting from such blessing.
As to the sacrifices, this needs some expounding. It takes a lot of time and effort to teach pupils on how to write, and it takes even a lot more to develop this into a skill that is worth displaying in a contest with other pupils or students from far and wide. Those who gave time for such effort suffered from late meals, missed obligations to one’s family and to other people, and had to go through so many sleepless nights.
The only consolation, looking back, are the achievements of our pupils (please read on) and the fact that the efforts were made easier with the moral support of the barangay LGU or the community and the parents. The thought also that we contributed by ingraining into our pupils the ability or skills acquired during the process to compete in the outside world when they go to the higher levels of the educational ladder and when they will have to compete for jobs in the future, make us confident to face our Maker decades from now.
Wait, there is also the consolation which cannot be discounted. We as educators are slowly changing the thinking of this community regarding formal education. Our place is in an area where many people earn their keep from their gardens of highland vegetables. People here can make a lot of money when they hit the jackpot with high prices of vegetables during harvest time. So sometimes, parents think that learning in school is the same as learning how to tend their gardens. The result will be the same anyway, money. In fact, some would even say with a veiled sneer that a gardener might even make more money than a college graduate who had to spend a lot of money in expenses and sleepless nights studying his lessons.
Such argument of the illeterate here is on the wane. People are now realizing that a gardener’s skills will not make their sons and daughters competitive in the modern world with its innumerable techonological gadgets and techniques being generated by the millisecond. More so if they intend to go abroad.
Before I enumerate the achievements of our pupils, I have to appreciate the DepEd’s press conferences as it is greatly contributing in educating our pupils. While the process might be expensive, but as our small community and small school, Sadsadan Trail Elementary School, have shown, unity in the community can make things happen. We took comfort, as everybody should take comfort, in the fact that God will make a way. Yes, God can make a way out of no way.
I have also to repeat for emphasis and for appreciation the efforts of our teaching staff and stakeholders. Special mention has to be made of my mentor, Delia P. Layag, the adviser of our shool paper “Gegeyaan” who not only sacrificed time and effort but also money from her own pocket in the process.
Our pupils (with the awards they bagged) who made us proud and made our small school shine over the years follow:
2009 Division School Press Conference, Sivfay Chaokas-Ist Place in Photojournalism English, Eillen Layag- 2nd place in News Writing English
2010 Division School Press Conference, Eileen Layag-5th place in News Writing English, Lee Allidem-5th place in Photojournalism, Eden Liwanag-6th place Feature Writing Filipino
2011 Division School Press Conference, Soujee Ann Mangapac-4th place in Editorial Writing English, Angelica Diamas-3rd Place in Sports Writing English, Chenny Ebeng-7th place in Photojournalism English
2012-Division School Press Conference, Wynette Sili- 2nd place in Copy Reading and Headlining English, Trisha Manuel-3rd place in Copy Reading anf Headlining Filipino, Soujee Mangapac-4th place in Editorial Writing English and in Editorial Cartooning English
2013-Division School Press Conference, Trisha Manuel- 2nd Place in Copy Reading and Headlining English, Shanoon sayaan- Sports Writing Filipino, Brynner Yaos- 6th Place in Photojournalism English
2014-Division School Press Conference
Michelle Sayan-2nd Place in Feature Writing English
2014-Regional School Press Conference in Abra
Michelle Sayan-3rd Place in Feature Writing English
2014-National School Press Conference in Subic Pampanga last April 7-10, 2014
Michelle Sayan-Participation
2015-Division School Paper Conference, Lynelle Xanthippe Malinias- 3rd Place in News writing English, 3rd place in Editorial Writing English, Khyle Mangapac-3rd place in Photojournalism Filipino, Jolina Sanoan-5th place in Science and Technology, School Paper-5th place in News Page, 5th place in Science & Tecgnology Page, 8th place in Best in Layout
2015-Regional School Paper Conference, Lynelle Xanthippe Malinias- 2nd place in News Writing English
2015-National School Paper Conference in Taguig City last April 13-17, 2015, Lynelle Xanthippe Malinias- participation
2016-Divison School Paper Conference, Freda Galao- 4th place in Feature Writing Filipino, Romjhey Manuel- 4th place in Editorial Writing English and Editorial Cartooning English, School Paper-1st Place in Best in Layout, 2nd Place in Best in School Paper, 3rd Place in Feature Page, 3rd Place in News Page
2016-Regional School Paper Conference, School Paper- 7th place in Best in Layout, 10th place in Science Page, 10th place in Feature Page
2017-Division School Paper Conference, School Paper-1st place in News page, 3rd Place in Editorial Page, 4th place in Sport Page, 7th place in Feature Page, 7th place in Best in Layout, 9th place in Science 7 Technology Page
2017-Regional School Paper, Note: No Official Result yet
Tracking the records of students from our school who were once our contestants before, they excelled in the same activities they participated in and in their academics like Soujee Ann Mangapac who studied at Wangal Science High School. She received academic awards and was even awarded as Most Outstanding Campus Journalist last 2016 Regional School Paper Conference.
These achievements motivated even more the stakeholders of this school to extend their unwavering support to school activities.**
