The Long

Walk Home..

A lot of stories have been told..

This is the untold STORY……

Life is a continuous process of change and development. Seeds have to germinate to become plants. Buds have to bloom to become flowers.

This principle holds true to the changes happening in our society and Bucana Bunglas, one of the barangays in Ajuy, has to embrace these changes. However, many of my students have to bear the reality that the changes they waited for a long time, remains ELUSIVE.

This strip of land joins Concepcion and Ajuy..its a 4-kilometer walk along the

ponds..

This change I’m referring to is the revolution in transportation. Many students do not have access to transportation and their only mode of going to school is through walking. This sad reality is due to the fact that roads are not yet capable to be passed by motorcycles and of course the high incidence of

poverty.

Some roads are less- travelled; not with these roads..

It was one rainy afternoon; everyone is in a hurry to go home when my eyes were opened to this harsh reality-many of my students have to endure the long road home walking in

the rain. Yes, it was a long, tedious walk.

To fully understand the travails that they have to face everyday of their student life, I took the long walk and put

myself in their shoes.

In their Shoes

William Ogburn identified three processes of social change: invention, discovery and diffusion. He coined the

term cultural lag to describe a situation in which some elements of culture adapt to an invention or discovery more rapidly than the others. To some extent, it can be

concluded that Bucana Bunglas and its neighboring baranggays is in that state of lagging behind. This cultural

lag has one setback-less access to transportation.

Political institutions should live up to the principle of EQUITABLE ALLOCATION OF SCARCE RESOURCES. Meaning to say, the marginalized sector of our society, which comprise a bigger percentage of our population should receive bigger chunk of the national budget.

And those who are in the higher echelon who numbered only a few should receive less. The truth is, money is concentrated in their hands. Thus, the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. In the case of the Baranggays adjacent to Bucana Bunglas, it can be noted that most baranggays have high incidence of poverty. The problem of having to walk to school is attributed to this high incidence of poverty.

The most powerful weapon on earth is a human soul on fire. An inspired person can do anything, walk through the rain, and walk barefooted to achieve something. 

It begs the question, what is it that you want, what sets you on fire? This study delves into the nature of motivation of students who have to walk to school.

Motivation is the attribute that “moves” us to do or not do something (Gredler,2001).

The questions designed will help us understand, in a nutshell, insights and hind sights to the following questions:1.How Important is education for these students who have to walk on their way to school?2.What motivates them to walk everyday?3.What is in school that keeps them going?

Data Gathering

The Respondents

The main idea of motivation is to capture the child's attention and curiosity and channel their energy towards learning. Intrinsic motivation is

motivation from within the student. In any school setting, whether it be elementary, secondary, or

higher education, a student’s motivation for learning is generally regarded as one of the most critical

determinants, if not the premier determinant, of the success and quality of any learning outcome (Mitchell,

2002).

An intrinsically motivated student studies because he/she wants to study. The material is interesting,

challenging and rewarding, and the student receives some kind of satisfaction from learning. To have an

intrinsically motivated student is the goal of all motivational development.

An extrinsically motivated student studies and learns for other reasons. Such a student performs in order to receive a reward, like graduating or passing a test or getting a new shirt from his or her mother, or to avoid a penalty like a failing grade. Intrinsic motivation comes from within the student or from factors inherent in the task being performed.

As teachers, we hope to promote intrinsic motivation in our students as it encourages life-long

learning. It is difficult to encourage intrinsic motivation all of the time, however, especially

because we spend over 900 hours per year in the classroom. Some strategies for promoting intrinsic motivation include arousing interest in the subject

matter, maintaining curiosity, using a variety of interesting presentation modes, and helping students

set their own goals.

About 80% of the Filipino poor live in the rural areas of the country. These are towns located deep in the mountains and the rice fields. The population density in the rural parts of the country is low, and there is a corresponding deficiency in schools and classrooms.

Public school is free, but families still cannot afford to send their children for a complicated network of reasons. In agriculture-based communities where farming is the primary livelihood, having children around to help with the work means more income for the family.

They are pulled from school for two or three months at a time and are irreparably disadvantaged compared with their classmates. So, they may have to repeat the year, only to be pulled out of school again next year.

A number of other strategies such as student choice, demonstrating the relevance or usefulness of content, and collaboration can also help encourage intrinsic motivation.

Transportation is another big problem. Kids walk as far as 20 kilometres or more to and from school every day. They have to cross rivers and climb hills

with their book bags. The ones that can afford it take a tricycle, but that is a luxury. Schools are sometimes

too far for the most remote communities to practically access. So the families can’t afford to pay

and the children are pulled from school.

After a tiresome walk, the thirst for knowledge is quenched inside this school..

BUCANA BUNGLAS NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

It seems like an intractable problem. Corruption in the education bureaucracy and a lack of resources make delivering a high-quality education to all Filipinos a challenge. History has shown that it is an achievable goal.

But real systemic change needs to come from above. As long as corruption and bureaucracy paralyzes the system, the goal of delivering a decent education to children – which pays dividends to the country in the long run – will remain out of reach.

METHODOLOGY

Respondents to this work were students coming from Silagon, Nino and Tamis-ac who do the walking every day.

A phenomenology/hermeneutics approach to gathering information for this study was used. This approach uses interview and questionnaire. The focus of this study was to capture the central meaning of experiences from several individuals, which, according to Heppner and Heppner (2004) would best be obtained using a phenomenology approach.

In order to elicit the information needed for this study, I prepared a questionnaire which contains the following questions:

1. Daw ano ka importante ang pag-eskwela para sa imo?2. Ano ang naga-motivate sa imo nga maglakat adlaw adlaw agod nga

makaeskwela?3. Ano ang mga nanamian mo gid kon ara ka sa eskwelahan?

•obtaining education will help not only their selves but the family as well

•a prospect of bright future• to reciprocate the sacrifices of their parents; •get out from the quagmire of poverty; •obtain further knowledge in school• and education could be passport to land a

better job someday.

1. Daw ano ka importante ang pag-eskwela para sa imo?

The second question that was raised was what motivates them to walk to school every day. Their reason why they endure the long walk going to school were

• to turn sacrifices into happiness,• because of poverty,• mingle with their fellow students,• teacher factor ,• learn new lessons and •win new friends.

Ano ang naga-motivate sa imo nga maglakat adlaw adlaw agod nga makaeskwela?

As the educator of these students, I was moved to keep their motivation burning inside them because from their responses, they are all in congruence that one of the moving forces why they endure the challenge of going to school everyday despite the hardship was:• ang amon mga maestro kag maestra nga nagasacrifice gid para mapaalam kami, •si mam kag si sir, nga nagatudlo gid sa amon sang mga lessons kag mga values para magamit namon.”

One of the recurring responses was the alleviation of poverty. The desire to get out from the clutches of this social menace was an impetus for these students that they endure the long walk in order to obtain education.

Poverty alleviation was a recurring answer

It can be noted that based from the dichotomy of the nature of motivation, most of these students are extrinsically motivated. Their motivation to study springs not from the inherent desire to learn, but they are motivated because of external factors that were already presented. Several studies suggest academic motivation seems to change as students get older.

According to Daniels and Arapostathis (2005), students’ level of motivation may be affected by the change in teaching relationships from elementary school, where participation is encouraged, to high school, where the focus is primarily on academic grades.

Therefore, it appears that student motivation may change as student’s age. The age of the student has also been shown to affect their level of motivation. In addition, this study suggested that motivation may change over time.

Physiological factors are also deemed to be influential in the transference and the readiness of the learning process (Knoll, 2003).

Students could learn best when their body is free from any pains caused by a long walk which requires physical exertion.

It has been mentioned that teachers should encouraged intrinsic motivation among our students. Meaning to say, that our learners should love learning because of learning itself. There is an apparent need to inculcate this among our students. Its true that education could lead as to our better future, but it depends on the quality of education and how this education influenced these students-how will they fare in the greater arena called life.

Walls are made of bricks. The strength of the wall depends on the strength of individuals bricks. Yes, these students are the individual bricks that make our society. Empowering them is tantamount to building a strong society upon which this humanity is built. If some students enjoy the convenience brought by revolution in transportation, these less-privileged students deserve to be given attention to make them feel that, in the intricate web of life we are all connected.

The responses that were discussed were just icing from the cake and may not totally represent the sentiments of the entire studentry. But somehow, it gives us the overview of some grim conditions that some of our students have to face to win their daily battles.

Flowers wither and trees die, in no time a new seed will germinate and the new journey begins.

IN THE CASE OF THESE STUDENTS,AS LONG AS SOME COMPONENTS OF OUR INSTITUTIONS REMAIN DYSFUNCTIONAL, THEIR TRAVAILS WILL PERENNIALLY REMAIN IN ITS VICIOUS CYCLE.

Thank you for sharing a walk with me. I hope that through this, their story be will be heard.

The long walk home dawns, leaving in its wake, the promise of another day..

JENEWEL M. AZUELOTEACHER I, BUCANA BUNGLAS NHS

Thank you for Listening..!!!!