The Superheroes of Pardo

Although Stacey has already posted a review of all of today's activities, my individual vocational visit to Pardo National High School and Elementary school moved me so much that I felt the need to make my own post. I hope that many will take the time to read this.

By the time we got to Pardo National High School (a public school in one of Cebu’s six school districts) it was pouring rain and my Rotarian guide, Butch Tayactac, hopped out of the car to get an umbrella in the trunk to bring around to me so I wouldn’t get wet. Inside, I met his wife, Principal Eileen Irina O. Tayactac, Ed.D. She accompanied us over to the elementary school (where the special education program is housed) to have a sit down meeting with her, the elementary school principal, Mr. Ronald Llerin, the guidance counselor, and special education teacher, Gina P. Villapez.

Just to give you some context, Pardo’s district has ten schools, 4 of which are in the city (the others in the mountains). Pardo Elementary has 4,700 students and Pardo high school has 3,300 students (in both their day and night school programs). There are an average of 60 students in each Elementary classroom (with 1 teacher per class) and 50-55 students in each high school class (again, 1 teacher).


While the government in the Philippines supports the public schools, the support is basic and only covers the essentials for regular education. There are no government mandates or funds for special education programs, and until this year there was no specific special education classroom at Pardo. Children in need were sent to other schools in or outside the district. However, in its inaugural year, teacher Gina has been working with 20 Autism spectrum/developmentally delayed students ages 4 to 16 years old. She has them separated into groups based on functioning level and works with these groups in 1-2 hours blocks throughout the day. She has no aide, but does ask parents to help or accompany their child when they can. If that wasn't enough work, she serves as the Special Education teacher for the pull out students who need extra help in certain subjects in the afternoon. After her training, Gina spent two years in California as a special education teacher before returning to Cebu. While this gave her hands-on training in how things run in the US (which she is clearly applying to guide her work here with the students – remember there are no government mandates about what to do, no IEPs to follow, etc).  It also gave her direct experience with how things could be, and how much is lacking where she is now.

Gina opens up her classroom (a former storage room) for me.

In talking to Gina and the other Pardo personnel, it is clear that teachers in the Philippines—especially special education teachers—need to be superheroes and jacks-of-all-trades. With no funding, they must be interior designers adapting often inappropriate spaces to be functional (Gina’s class was previously a storage closet), inventive engineers who can make learning materials and manipulatives out of whatever they can get their hands on, curriculum developers, and, if they are to get the things they need, fundraising directors. Gina is clearly all of these, and I left then in awe of what she has to work with and what she is doing with it. She has her classroom decorated from floor to ceiling with poster and items meant to teach, direct, and guide the children (ABCs, days of the week, classroom rules, and a daily picture schedule).

Gina in her classroom

Because there is poor draining there, when it rains hard and water pours down the walls some of these things get damaged on a regular basis, so she makes new ones.

The drainage pipe that leaks into her classroom

Every day she sets up tables in make-shift learning stations so children can work for a bit on each one, earn a reward, and then move on to the next task (she calls it her “if then” system, so children know if they do this, then they can do that). There is no speech therapy, OT, or psychologist at the school, so she must be all things rolled into one. She works with the children on basic academic skills as well as their ADLs and life skills and assesses when each is ready to move to the next level and/or be mainstreamed. She notes proudly that in the program’s first year, two students earned awards at a city wide special education program.


Gina is also clearly dedicated. Despite being on maternity leave (she gave birth 2 weeks ago) and despite it being summer break already for her students, she came in today just to meet with me AND contacted all her students’ parents to let them know so they could come with their children to meet me and I could meet them. I was humbled. She is also resourceful and very outspoken about the needs of her school and was not shy about being clear that they need resources—badly—and she inquired as to what assistance my visit might bring from people or groups back home that care about the needs of children with special needs.  She would welcome anything I could offer (though space, materials, and a working computer would be most needed - all of which require money).


I wanted to promise her (and her students) the world there on the spot, but I couldn’t, and I was clear with her on this. But what I could promise that I would take what I saw, and their requests, back home to anyone who would listen and see what comes of that. She also asked if she could email me occasionally if she was stuck with behavioral management issues (as there are no psychologists to consult) and if I could offer direction or guidance on where she might find ideas on what to do. I was glad I could say ‘yes’ to that on the spot. After I was done meeting with them and touring the classroom, and many photos were taken, Dr. Tayactac presented me with a beautiful handcrafted wooden necklace and thanked me profusely for my visit and getting the word out about they are doing.


So here I am blogging about it, the first step to me getting the word out about Pardo.  Who will read this, and whether they will have the inclination or ability to do anything about it, I do not know.  I wish there was a website I could post for you to visit, but Pardo is not quite there yet.  They do have an email address, however, which Principal Tayactac would encourage me to share: pardonationalhighschool@yahoo.com

Thanks for reading this.  At the very least, I hope that it will make you more appreciative of what we have here.