GILAS in Cauayan City

In GILAS, our first intervention starts by conducting orientations in the various divisions of the Department of Education. We conduct orientation to the heads of the public high schools, as well as the ICT coordinators/supervisors and even the top management of the divisions. And right after the orientation, we usually conduct school visits in order to check if a school is qualified to be recipients of GILAS.


One of the first divisions that I have visited when I started to work in GILAS in 2006 is Cauayan City. Cauayan City is one of the cities in Isabela, a province in Cagayan Valley region, in the northern part of the Philippines. Though the poblacion area, or the center of the city, is quite progressive, there are a couple of schools in the far flung areas. The farthest school that I have visited to is Linglingay National High School, about 40 kilometers of rough road away from the poblacion. We passed by several corn plantations on the way to this remote school. This is one of my first hand experience of the difficult situation of the public high schools, and I admire the officials and teachers for their hard work for their schools, especially for their students.