Bangka Ng Karunungan (Boat of Wisdom)

One of the main challenges Barangay Kalupag faces in terms of education is that it is an isolated community. Based on our research, there is no schooling for (Grades IV-VI) in the area, therefore parents need to send them to other communities to complete their education. Moreover, due to the distance of the school from the houses and the presence of saltwater crocodiles, it makes traveling to school difficult for students especially when they need to cross the sea every day to go to school.

According to the Department of Education (2021), the right to an education, the right to a good education, and the right to be respected in the classroom are all intertwined and are the three dimensions of rights-based education (RBE).  RBE is a paradigm that envisions a school or learning environment in which students are happy, well-rounded, and smart, and their rights are respected and preserved.

In a 2019 report by the United Nations students's Fund (UNICEF), only 78 percent of the students aged 4 to 12 years old in BARMM completed basic education (daycare to grade six). The Barangay Development Plan of Kalupag states that only 140 or 15 percent out of 934  aged between 6-10 years old are enrolled in the Kalupag Primary School in 2019.

According to the Annual Poverty Indicators Survey of the Philippines Statistics Authority (2016), the top three reasons for students not attending school are early marriage/family matters, families not having enough income, and lack of personal interest in education.  A community leader and a teacher from Sitio Proper Kalupag that I interviewed during my research said that the cost of schooling is the top factor that limits the students in the community from acquiring an education.

Most of the households rely on ways of earning which yield a small income, such as seaweed farming, fishing, cassava planting and mechant. Their income only  supports their daily needs (food and capital for their livelihood) 

Our research found that the barriers to education are financial problems,distance, lack of school boats and schools lack all the grades.  Another issue is that parents are not encouraging their students to get a higher education (Kalupag Barangay Development Plan, 2021). There are 100 out-of-school youths in the barangay who stopped schooling during elementary or high school, most likely because the parents do not think that education is important. It appears that parents are not encouraging and supporting their students to get an education. According to the community leader, the mind-set of the people is that not all those who finish college are employed because of lack of eligibility so they work as volunteers in the community instead. 

“Bangka Ng Karunungan” (Boat of Wisdom) is an 11-month project that will provide boat to the selected barangay of Languyan, Tawi-Tawi and the project will provide safe transportation and easy access to school that will result in increased school attendance and participation through peace education initiatives. 

PROJECT OBJECTIVES
The community will have:
a.Increased school attendance and participation of the children in the target community. 
b.Free and safe ride for fifty (50) beneficiaries. 
c.Reached 150 households on understanding the importance of peace education initiatives.
d.Improved the reading proficiency of the children with low academic performance.

There are eight activities in this project. These are the following:

1. Courtesy Visits to the Local Government Unit of Languyan and Barangay Local Government Unit of Kalupag -who will give support through the duration of the project. 
2. Procurement of Materials for the construction of the boat will be carried out by the boat builders.
3. Project Launching to the community of Kalupag where the community introduces the project.
4. Training on water safety precautions for boat caretakers who will supervise the boat. This session will be facilitated by Tau-SPARTAN through the help of Coastguard office. 
5. Identification of fifty (50) students with low academic performance who the volunteer teachers will work with to improve the performance of both the volunteer teachers and students through Remedial Classes.  –The purpose of this is to identify the students who have low academic performance through the help of the volunteer teachers and also to help the students to improve their academic performance through the help of the trained volunteer teachers where they can apply the new skills in teaching.
6. Provide School Supplies to 50 Students-They will receive a bags and other school supplies. 
7. Team building session with students and their parents to emphasize the importance of education.
8. Culmination and Project Evaluation- The purpose of this activity is to assess the student's progress assessment and turnover the project to the community.

The target community for the project is Barangay Kalupag, which is home to three (3) tribes: Tausug (18%) Sama (80%) and Bisaya (2%) (Barangay Development Plan, 2019). The barangay consists of three (3) sitios (communities), namely: Proper Kalupag, Pula, and Sidalling

The beneficiaries are fifty (50) students from elementary to secondary, aged 8 to 15, living in the 3 sitios of archipelagic sites (communities) of Barangay Kalupag. 

In Human Rights, several laws are in place at both the national and international levels to ensure education for all, especially students. Additionally, BARMM advocates for the right to education of the Bangsamoro students. Therefore, this project will strengthen advocacy on the grassroot level and will aim to build a strong foundation for advocacy, irrespective of gender, tribal affiliation, and religion. 

Gender and Social Inclusion, will invite participants from the 3 communities of Kalupag, and we are ensuring that every tribe is represented as well as our 8 local volunteers and we will ensure that all are included in our activities. The activities we conduct should always involve 50% men and 50% women, if we identified a students with disability we will include also them and before we begin the activities, we should communicate to our participants that our activities are inclusive of all tribes and genders represented and using local languages when communicating to our participants will gain their trust. 

And Environmental Impacts, plastic pollution is one of the potential environmental risks of this project because of the daily activities where the majority of them use plastic to reduce this, we will introduce to the students the Solid Waste Management. Project will include the application of the 3 R's (Reuse Reduce and Recycle) in the community and a reminder of this method would be useful in avoiding contributing to environmental risks. Additionally, the house rule Clean As You Go (CLAY-Go) will apply.    

This proposal would be considered as the third iteration of this project. Our team has successfully delivered the same agenda previously in 2014 and was recognized as a national finalist in the 16th TAYO Awards (https://www.facebook.com/ayala...), and 2023 in partnership with Pathways that will be ending in May 2024. This track record speaks to our team's ability to design and execute solutions that resonate with our communities' needs.

As a provincial-wide organization, we have been actively engaged in community development projects across various areas of Tawi-Tawi for the past seven years. What sets us apart is our deep-rooted connection to the communities we serve. The diversity we have in our own organization bring diverse range of experiences and perspectives.  Thus, we are knowledgeable of the challenges our people are facing and have listened by heart the change they yearn for. Our collective experiences have instilled in us a profound empathy for the struggles and aspirations of those we aim to uplift. Not only that we are able to deliver results in these communities, we have also built strong relationships with significant partners all through out our journey.

The challenges in Barangay Kalupag is a common situation to most communities in Tawi-Tawi, due to its archipelagic nature. Which is the reason why we seek opportunities for its continuity to other areas. Our journey for years has built the foundation for our approach through inclusivity and valued community engagement. We believe in co-creating solutions with the very people who stand to benefit from them, ensuring that our interventions are not only effective but also sustainable in the long run. 

Our team's proximity to the communities we serve, our inclusive approach to solution design, and our track record of success position us as ideal candidates to deliver Bangka ng Karunungan. This project doesn't only represent as a project, it embodies our dedication and compassion in bringing about transformative impact to communities. We cross the shores for people's future.

As a non-profit organization, this action project needs to have a developed design of how to implement a sustainable solution in order to become successful and how we can attract different funders. 

We were able to update the eight volunteer teachers and 150 children of the new academic curriculum and equipped them with basic teaching methods and different strategies that are appropriate to teaching primary learners in their area. They have gained experience on the actual give-and-take process of teaching in terms of: (1) incorporating a student-centered approach which means that they now have several ideas on how to make learning challengingly fun at the same time; (2) being knowledgeable of the significance of having a lesson framework tool such as a lesson plan, in monitoring the students’ progress and their own; (3) having a variety of evaluative activities to increase learning capacity in order to reach higher potential of students and that point input from activities is vital; and (4) utilization of flexibility and creativity in teaching.
Henceforth, the performance of the volunteer teachers gave a positive impact towards the students. Providing a safe transportation to the students became eager in attending the class especially that they were provided with their individual learning kits. The classrooms have become dynamic because of the instructional materials mounted on the walls which increased student appeal and interest. Additionally, because of the innovative and interesting activities being undertaken in the classroom, students are enjoying how they are acquiring knowledge. Moreover, the whole community observed the positive changes brought about by the project towards the children and hoped for its sustainability so that children continue to be determined in their studies.

The Solve is a platform that we see as an opportunity to be able to connect with other communities on  building a quality education especially in archipelagic communities. As a community-based organization, we see the potential to do this on  how other communities have reached the unreached community in terms of providing quality education and to collaborate with other Solvers in order to develop our strategy to ensure every child has access to a quality education. And lastly, we wanted to receive constructive feedback on developing a sustainable  solution.  

As we are able to implement this action project, we will face different challenges such as the creation of an environmentally friendly motorized boat, encouraging people to learn the basics of law for every child, especially child protection, and how difficult it will be for us to reach the residents of the island. 
In the end, we see that there is a need for attention to be given to the Indigenous community and someone who is willing to listen to them, and we see how Solve can help develop our strengths, such as community organizing, community research, and Community Empowerment, by providing those aspects.

And we are aiming that Solve and other Solvers help us to develop on supporting  volunteer teachers to have a training workshop on new teaching methods then they are given the opportunity to develop and provide conducive learning, safe transportation and they can improve the academic performance of the children in the archipelagic island of Tawi-Tawi. 

If we help to develop on supporting  volunteer teachers to have a training workshop on new teaching methods then they are given the opportunity to develop and provide conducive learning, safe transportation and they can improve the academic performance of the children in the archipelagic island of Tawi-Tawi. 

Tau-SPARTAN is composed of 20 volunteer members,10 of them are officers and 5 of them is a part-time staff.