Challenges in education: The untold story of students in Lanao Kapanglao, Glan, Sarangani province

This study aimed to investigate the challenges encountered by the indigenous students in assessing quality education in the mountainous area of Lanao Kapanglao, It is located in the Northern part of the Municipality of Glan, a 42 kilometers travel and 12 hours hike from the barangay proper of Datal Bukay, Glan Sarangani Province, Philippines. Furthermore, this study also examined the demographic profile, ethnic traditions and daily lifestyle of the students and the difficulties experienced by the teachers assigned in this remote and marginalized area. The respondents of this study were Forty (40) indigenous students from different grade level.These pupils belong to the one and the most unfortunate and unprivileged pupils in the whole country. Likewise, all of the students belonged to a very poor family with P1000 monthly income and forced to take absences in school to work on their local farms. Moreover, their school itself lack of school materials due to the lack of funding and poor accessibility, this condition, hampers the students from learning. Even the classroom used was not conducive. Electrification also is a major problem in the community. Hence, the teacher also cannot use their multi-media as an aid in teaching. In addition, they eat corn, sweet potato and cassava as their lunch and dinner. They don’t have medicine if they got sick and depended only on their native herbals and old rituals. Consequently, their rich indigenous traditions were practiced frequently in their community.