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Coast Guard to teach grade schoolers on Pag-asa Island

Rappler.com

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Coast Guard to teach grade schoolers on Pag-asa Island
The school in Kalayaan town does not have enough teachers. The PCG is just too willing to teach and at the same time assert the Philippines' claim the Spratlys

MANILA, Philippines – From guardians of the sea to educators of the minds.

Personnel of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) are off to Pag-asa Island in Palawan province that sits within the disputed area of the Spratlys (West Philippine Sea), not only for security duties. 

The coast guards, who are also licensed teachers, will be beefing up the teaching force at the Pag-asa Elementary School starting in June. The PCG and Kalayaan Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon signed on Wednesday, April 23 a memorandum of agreement on the program. 

The Department of Education (DepEd) opened the school on Pag-asa Island, which is part of Kalayaan town, last 2012. Before, students from the island had to travel to mainland Palawan for schooling.

“There is one teacher handling 2-3 grade [levels]. The teachers are really not enough,” said Commodore Enrico Efren Evangelista, district commander of PCG-Palawan. 

Because of this, Evangelista said, teaching will be “part of our deployment.”

The teachers from PGC will be oriented first by the DepEd in Palawan before their deployment.

“It is just a matter of deploying the right people to provide good education to children and help the municipality,” Evangelista added. 

He also said the deployment of PCG’s licensed teachers is meant to assert the Philippines’ claim over the Spratlys.

“That is one of the objectives of Mayor Bito-onon when the school is built, we are [in] support of it,” he added. 

Tension has marked territorial disputes in the South China Sea, which the Philippines calls the West Philippine Sea. The Philippines is among 6 countries claiming islands in the Spratlys, locally known as the Kalayaan Group of Islands. (READ: PH ready to protect economic zone in West PH Sea– Rappler.com

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