P20 enough to push some poor children out of school

Efren Peñaflorida said he wants to change the system of education in the Philippines, where not having a birth certificate or a mere P20 (about $0.40) could bar  poor children from enroling.

In a roundtable interview with The Manila Times on Monday, Peñaflorida, who was recently named CNN Hero of the Year, told editors how his organization, the Dynamic Teen Co., helped a boy who could not enrol in school because he could not produce a birth certificate.

The boy was so happy just to know that his birthday, fell on December 26, he said.

He also lamented how poor students were forced to drop out because of small fees, like P20 for the photocopying of test papers or some other small amount for some other school activity.

He added that certain practices in public schools put additional financial burden on poor students, such as when teachers ask their students to buy sausages and other items.

Losing a textbook was also enough to push some children out of school.

Most public school books are marked “not for sale,” but some students who have lost these books were required to buy a replacement. “How can they buy a book that is not for sale?” Peñaflorida asked.

Good news

Peñaflorida also told The Times that he was using his newfound fame to influence policy makers—and changes.

For example, he said that he has met with Sec. Jesli Lapus of the Department of Education who told him that they would be adopting his kariton or pushcart concept—particularly the part where they try to motivate children about learning.

Peñaflorida was cited by CNN for bringing the classroom to impoverished communities in Cavite province (south of Manila), his poor-man version of school on wheels.

He said that the government could help the street children in simple ways —by providing assistance in processing the birth certificates and other documents required by schools for enrolment and by raising the teachers’ salaries so they could focus on teaching rather than on augmenting their meager incomes.

Peñaflorida added that his organization’s pushcart concept was being replicated elsewhere in the Philippines and even abroad, in Indonesia and Kenya.

Together with Dynamic Teen Co. and Club 8586, Peñaflorida took pushcarts loaded with books, writing tools, tables and chairs to poor areas. He and his co-workers teach street children basic reading, writing and math. Their program is called “K4 Project” which stands for Kariton, Klasrum, Klinik at Kantin (pushcart, classroom, clinic and canteen).

Their program also includes lessons on hygiene and values formation.

“What we are doing is only a first step in helping street children,” he said. “We want to encourage them to embrace and love learning because it is something that can’t be taken away from them.”

Proper credit

The 28-year-old educator said he owed his fame to his mentor, Bon Manalaysay.

“When I was about to give up, he [Bon] told me, ‘Why will you give up? Why not use your energy to accomplish positive things?’ And that statement helped me to go on,” Penaflorida told The Times when he recounted how he got involved in the program as a young boy already involved in gangs.

“They [Manalaysay and Em Baguan, who conceptualized the pushcart] deserve this recognition more than me,” he said.

He added that the he went to the US to represent the Dynamic Teen Co., not himself.

People often get the wrong idea, especially when it came to the $125,000 prize money given by CNN, he told The Times.

Some people have even teased his grandmother, who works selling snacks that her goods were being given away for free because Peñaflorida was now awash with cash.

As he said in previous interviews, 90 percent of his winnings go back to Dynamic Teen Co. and 10 percent donated to a church.

“I hope someday, when our country finally have the ideal education system we wouldn’t be needing these karitons anymore,” he said. –JOHANNA M. SAMPAN REPORTER, Manila Times