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Multi-grade classes, rough seas are part of school life in Tarangnan, Samar


On Samar Island's western side are several small islands and among them is the island of Libucan Gutiay, where public elementary school teachers serving the local population teach multi-grade classes.
 
GMA News' Jiggy Manicad, in a report on the late evening newscast “Saksi” said one teacher teaches a class with students from Grades 1 to 3. Another teacher is for a class with Grades 4 to 6 students. 
 
Manicad observed how difficult it was for the teachers and their students to tackle their classroom lessons while having to endure the noise and congestion in each class.
 
Video footage the GMA News team shot showed that the Libucan Gote Elementary School has just three school buildings.
 
According to the Public Schools Map of the Department of Education, the SY 2014-2015 enrollment of the Libucan Gote Elementary School was 73. The school's budget for the year for maintenance and operating expenses is P70,000.


 
 
The nearest secondary school is the Oeste National High School, which is a boat ride away in the Gallego area of Tarangnan town on the west coast of Samar, southeast of Calbayog City.
 
On an island across the waters from Gallego, the GMA News team met Francis, a high school student, who paddles his small banca to get to and from school.
 
Francis said his boat had flipped over twice before while crossing the channel between his island Oeste National High School.
 
Francis said he hopes to become a teacher when he graduates from college so that students there will have another teacher to guide them through school.
 
DepEd data show the Oeste National High School had enrollment of 400 students in SY 2014-2015 and a maintenance and operating expense budget of P454,000.  — Rie Takumi/ELR, GMA News