Cawayan
is a remote barangay in the southern tip of the Bondoc Peninsula.
The last 80 km. stretch of the road from Gumaca to San Francisco
is rough and dusty. Most if not all of the residents in
this area are low-income earners. Due to its great distance
from the center, social services (particularly education)
were often very deficient. The lone academic institution
in the area (the Peninsula Academy) was a private school
that charged P270 monthly for tuition fees alone.
Parents
typically found the fees prohibitive though they recognize
the importance of giving their children good education.
This unsettling condition prompted the barangay LGU to take
the initiative in establishing a community high school to
meet the education needs of the constituents. Though the
effort seemed ambitious given the lack of finances and dearth
of other resources, the barangay built a school from wood
and nipa materials.
Fate
tested the persistence of the community when the school
burned down right after the first day of classes in 1997.
To rebuild the school, the community (especially the parents)
poured in contributions in the form of cash, construction
materials, and for many labor.
In
August 1999, the Department of Education (formerly DECS)
recognized the secondary school and renamed it the San Francisco
National High School. What was initially a barangay high
school for 98 students now caters to 398. From having only
1 teacher (funded by the local school board) in 1997, the
school now has 7 (5 of whom are funded locally and 2 by
DepEd). The initial one-room structure made of wood and
nipa is now a 4-building compound with 7 rooms and other
basic facilities.
The
school serves not only the high school students of Barangay
Cawayan I but also those from the poblacion and other neighboring
barangays.
