Going far

This Grade 6 student of the Graduating Class of Sta. Teresita of Miarayon Community School, Miarayon, stood tall on stage at graduation day in March 2025.

Shoes torn, sewn back, torn again, left torn, and then worn again.

Barangay Miarayon, Bukidnon, a municipality of Talakag in the province of Bukidnon, has the highest population of children aged 5 to 9 years (2015 census).  With an average income from farming of Php5,000 per month, and an average of 5.15 members per household (2015 census), parents find it extremely challenging to pay their children’s elementary school tuition of Php200 per month.

Two elementary schools, Miarayon Elementary School and Sta. Teresita of Miarayon Community School (STMCS), a private high school, and St Therese High School of Miarayon (STHSM), aim to educate the youth. The high school is administered and supported by the Society of Jesus, while the private elementary school is administered by individuals affiliated with the Ateneo de Manila University. STMCS is oriented towards providing indigenized education for the Tala-andig children, which strongly emphasizes appreciation for tribal culture, as well as functional literacy and numeracy levels according to the standards set by the Department of Education.

STMCS was founded in 2006, following a request by Tatay Telmo, the Chief Tribal Leader of Sitio Abel, on behalf of the community, for a school to provide primary education to their young children. From a single First-Grade class with 25 students, the school has grown into a fully functioning elementary school, serving students from Kindergarten to Grade 6, with a total population of 220 students.

Currently, five of the 12 teachers, many of whom are College graduates from Xavier University, a Jesuit Institution in Mindanao, and all recipients of College Scholarships, serve as teachers. Eventually, they obtain their professional teaching licenses, are absorbed by the Department of Education, and are deployed as public school teachers in Miarayon or nearby sitios.

Educating the Tala-andig children remains an uphill climb, as most of them are first-generation elementary school pupils and thus receive very little or no support at home for their learning. Still, the parents tirelessly work on the farms because they know that education is key to carrying their children beyond the limits of their current realities, where hope takes form, dreams grow larger than themselves, and the promise of a brighter, better future comes within reach.

That Grade 6 student’s worn shoes tell a larger story—of how, despite poverty and hardship, the people of Miarayon walk determinedly toward a future made possible through access to education.