The town of Manoot is located in the mountain zone east of Rizal District of the province of Occidental Mindoro in the Philippines. After a very important bridge was repaired, what used to be a two-hour bumpy ride on rough roads is now just forty minutes, though still on rough roads. Manoot is a quiet, sleepy town where houses are found few and far between. Families thrive on farming their own lands that are commonly adjacent to their homes.

Amidst a backdrop of forested mountains and lush greenery, Manoot Elementary School’s rather newly painted white buildings offer a comfortable sight on a dusty valley. The school campus rests on 5.04 hectares of land that was donated by a town benefactor in January 2005.

Three school buildings house the nine classrooms, seven of which were completely in a dilapidated condition before the school became a pilot site for the Batang Listo project. Plan Occidental Mindoro repaired the seven classrooms at a cost of a little under one million pesos. Renovation was completed within one month. The two remaining classrooms were refurbished and repainted with the assistance of the Barangay Council, the PTCA, and the Sangguniang Bayan of Rizal. Each classroom has its own comfort room. Electric fans, from a solicitation, were installed.

Manoot Elementary School adopted a curriculum based on APSA’s Power Standards that were aligned with the Philippine Elementary Learning Competencies (PELC). Plan had commissioned APSA’s technology to do the Batang Listo power standards.

When Manoot Elementary School was chosen as Batang Listo project’s pilot site, the school had been at the lowest ranking among 365 public schools in the district of Mindoro. Starting in school year 2004-2005, trainings, monitoring, coaching, and assessment have been conducted.

The teachers underwent intensive trainings such as the ten-day learning on science and use of laboratory equipment for science experiments at the Southville International School. They were also asked to re-echo what they have learned in the training seminars they attended to other schools in the district. Today, the teachers admit that they have, indeed, transformed from their old shy and introverted selves into professionals brimming with self-confidence.

Manoot Elementary School was chosen as Batang Listo project’s pilot school because of its inadequate school facilities and dilapidated school buildings. It was also overpopulated and quite far from the nearest town center. It was a low-performing school where a majority of the schoolchildren were undernourished.

The assessment at the end of the project cycle showed very encouraging results. From being the lowest-ranking, it improved to being in the middle-ranking of all schools in the district.

Via DepEd/Wikipedia