Mindanaotoday.com | Reaching out to schools in remote areas
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
In less than two months, a group of motorbike-riding educators in Cagayan de Oro is making their collective presence felt. Initially composed by 22 members during an organizational meeting on April 29, this year, they became the pioneering members of Guro Rides Philippines.
Roy Angelo Gazo, newly-installed schools division superintendent in Cagayan de Oro and Audie Borres, assistant SDS, are behind the birth of Guro Rides Ph as founder and co-founder. They have been visiting schools in geographically isolated and deprived areas in Northern Mindanao for years.
Prior to Cagayan de Oro, Gazo and Borres had reached the remotest places of Iligan and Valencia, Bukidnon, inspecting public schools and monitoring classroom instructions–in the performance of their respective functions.
Often, they use their personal motorbikes, braving rough-road accidents and risks in localities they are not familiar with, unmindful of extreme weather condition, and working beyond the usual working hours in government offices.
Cagayan de Oro is no exception, some areas where public schools are, are not accessible by four-wheel vehicles.
This time, their first outreach activity on Wednesday, June 28, was Magayad Integrated School and Man-ai Elementary School in Tignapoloan village in the uplands southwest of the city’s commercial center. It was about 45-kilometer bike ride on mixed paved, sand-and- gravel and dirt road. The village is situated just few kilometers from the border of Iligan City.
Though it was Muslim holiday (Eid al-Adha), Magayad IS Principal Dulce Cuerquis, her teachers and learners reported to school to welcome the visitors. Before leaving, Guro Rides Ph members planted tree seedlings within the campus.
With District Supervisor Angelito Felicilda as president, Guro Rides is undertaking their first tangible project, a rotunda landmark in front of the Division Office at Fr. William Masterson Avenue, Balulang village, this city– the very site most members informally meet.
Before this year ends, every school in far-flung places of Cagayan de Oro would no longer feel isolated and neglected. Every tree seedling planted will be a reminder, they are not alone. Members of Guro Rides Philippines, now 35, are with them.
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