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Pag-asa Island in West Philippine Sea to get first high school

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Jaehwa Bernardo, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Classes at Pag-asa Island School in late October. Jervis Manahan, ABS-CBN News" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/news/11/02/pagasa-island-jm-2.jpg"/><figcaption>Classes at Pag-asa Island School in late October. Jervis Manahan, ABS-CBN News</figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA (UPDATE) — Students in the Philippines-occupied Pag-asa Island (Thitu Island) in the West Philippine Sea may soon no longer have to travel to the Palawan mainland to pursue secondary education after the government recently approved the establishment of a high school there.</p><p>Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said the Department of Education (DepEd) approved the conversion of Pag-asa Elementary School into an integrated school that would cater to both elementary and junior high school (JHS) students.</p><p>&quot;This means that the school will be offering, in addition to elementary grades, JHS level grades as well, which comes with the necessary resources for that,&quot; Malaluan told ABS-CBN News on Tuesday.</p><p>Asked if the island would also get a senior high school, Malaluan said, &quot;It can evolve to have one as needed.&quot;</p><p>The 37-hectare island, which is the seat of Kalayaan municipality and is located 285 nautical miles west of mainland Palawan, had its first and only elementary school in 2012.</p><p>Students attending high school have to travel to the mainland or live with relatives there, said island coordinator Dennis Bana.</p><p>&quot;Ang nangyayari, naiiwan dito &#x27;yong mga magulang kasi nandito &#x27;yong trabaho. &#x27;Yong mga bata, bumababa [sa mainland] para mag-school,&quot; Bana said in a phone interview.</p><p>(What happens is the students leave their parents because they work on the island. They go to the mainland for school.)</p><p>Bana said the construction of the new school facilities may start next year.</p><p>&quot;May budget na. Nag-usap na rin si [Kalayaan] Mayor [Roberto del Mundo] pati DepEd, may memorandum nang pinirmahan,&quot; he said.</p><p>(There&#x27;s already a budget. The mayor and DepEd have already talked about it, and signed a memorandum.)</p><p>Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a presidential aspirant in next year&#x27;s elections who recently visited the island, thanked the DepEd for the development.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Thank you, Department of Education for this:<br/>Approval of the Pag-asa Integrated Elementary and High School effective next School Year, 2022-2023. Certainly a big step of HOPE for the young people of Kalayaan.</p>— PING LACSON (@iampinglacson) <a href="https://twitter.com/iampinglacson/status/1465242594502270982?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 29, 2021</a></blockquote><div><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charSet="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script></div><p>&quot;Certainly a big step of hope for the young people of Kalayaan,&quot; Lacson said in a Twitter post.</p><p>Pag-asa Elementary School returned to in-person classes earlier this year since there are no COVID-19 cases on the island and the weak internet connection there cannot support remote learning.</p><p>Pag-asa is part of the Spratlys, which is being claimed by several Asian countries including the Philippines and China. It is among nine features in the Kalayaan Islands Group occupied by the Philippines.</p><p>There are about 300 people residing there, excluding construction and ice-plant workers sent to the island for brief projects. Personnel of the Philippine Navy, Marines, Air Force, Maritime Police, and the Philippine Coast Guard are also deployed there on a rotational basis, raising the population on the island to around 500 at any given time.</p><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1836988" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

Students in Pag-asa Island may soon no longer have to travel to the Palawan mainland to pursue high school education.

Pag-asa Island in West Philippine Sea to get first high school

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Pag-asa Island in West Philippine Sea to get first high school

Jaehwa Bernardo,

ABS-CBN News

Published Nov 30, 2021 03:53 PM PHT

|

Updated Nov 30, 2021 08:49 PM PHT

Read More:

education

Pag-asa Island

Kalayaan

Palawan

regions

regional news

Panfilo Lacson

Thitu Island

West Philippine Sea

South China Sea

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