CULASI, Antique – This is John Patricio,19 of Batbatan Island in Culasi, Antique. He did not enroll in high school after he graduated from elementary three years ago.
The high school is located in the mainland of Culasi. It takes more than one hour and a half to reach the mainland via pump boat. In this case, his parents could not afford to finance his daily school allowance.
After more than three years, an integrated school was established in their barangay but John has already lost interest to enroll again.
Fishing is a common source of livelihood on the island. John’s father is a fisherman while his mother is a
housekeeper. The family has been included in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program wherein John is one of the three monitored children of the Patricio family.
However, John’s supposedly cash grant for education was forfeited after he failed to enroll in high school which means he could not able to comply with the 85% school attendance which is one of the conditionalities set by the program.
John wanted to become a seaman someday. He promised to himself to go back school next school year through the Alternative Learning System (ALS) wherein DepEd staff are visiting the island to do classes every weekend.//dswd6