This presentation tells about the travails of students who have to walk their way home. Along with snapshots, I walk with them to experience the tedious routine everyday. Social institutions should function well to address this perennial problem in our society.

1. The Long
Walk Home..

2. A lot of stories have
been told..
This is the untold
STORY……

3. Life is a continuous process of change and development. Seeds
have to germinate to become plants. Buds have to bloom to become
flowers.
This principle holds true to the changes happening in our society
and Bucana Bunglas, one of the barangays in Ajuy, has to embrace these
changes. However, many of my students have to bear the reality that the
changes they waited for a long time, remains ELUSIVE.

4. This strip of land joins Concepcion and
Ajuy..its a 4-kilometer walk along the
ponds..

5. This change I’m referring to is the revolution in transportation. Many students
do not have access to transportation and their only mode of going to school
is through walking. This sad reality is due to the fact that roads are not yet
capable to be passed by motorcycles and of course the high incidence of
poverty.

6. Some roads are less- travelled; not with these
roads..

7. It was one rainy afternoon; everyone is in a hurry to go
home when my eyes were opened to this harsh reality-many
of my students have to endure the long road home walking in
the rain. Yes, it was a long, tedious walk.

8. To fully understand the travails that they have to face
everyday of their student life, I took the long walk and put
myself in their shoes.
In their Shoes

9. William Ogburn identified three processes of social
change: invention, discovery and diffusion. He coined the
term cultural lag to describe a situation in which some
elements of culture adapt to an invention or discovery
more rapidly than the others. To some extent, it can be
concluded that Bucana Bunglas and its neighboring
baranggays is in that state of lagging behind. This cultural
lag has one setback-less access to transportation.

10. Political institutions should live up to the principle of EQUITABLE
ALLOCATION OF SCARCE RESOURCES. Meaning to say, the marginalized
sector of our society, which comprise a bigger percentage of our
population should receive bigger chunk of the national budget.
And those who are in the higher echelon who numbered only a few
should receive less. The truth is, money is concentrated in their hands.
Thus, the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. In the case of the
Baranggays adjacent to Bucana Bunglas, it can be noted that most
baranggays have high incidence of poverty. The problem of having to
walk to school is attributed to this high incidence of poverty.

11. The most powerful weapon on earth is a human
soul on fire. An inspired person can do anything, walk
through the rain, and walk barefooted to achieve
something.
It begs the question, what is it that you want,
what sets you on fire? This study delves into the
nature of motivation of students who have to walk to
school.

12. Motivation is the attribute that “moves” us to do or not do
something (Gredler,2001).
The questions designed will help us understand, in a
nutshell, insights and hind sights to the following questions:
1.How Important is education for these students who have to
walk on their way to school?
2.What motivates them to walk everyday?
3.What is in school that keeps them going?

13. Data Gathering

14. The Respondents

15. The main idea of motivation is to capture the
child's attention and curiosity and channel their
energy towards learning. Intrinsic motivation is
motivation from within the student. In any school
setting, whether it be elementary, secondary, or
higher education, a student’s motivation for learning
is generally regarded as one of the most critical
determinants, if not the premier determinant, of the
success and quality of any learning outcome (Mitchell,
2002).

16. An intrinsically motivated student studies because
he/she wants to study. The material is interesting,
challenging and rewarding, and the student receives
some kind of satisfaction from learning. To have an
intrinsically motivated student is the goal of all
motivational development.

17. An extrinsically motivated student studies
and learns for other reasons. Such a student
performs in order to receive a reward, like
graduating or passing a test or getting a new
shirt from his or her mother, or to avoid a
penalty like a failing grade.
Intrinsic motivation comes from within the
student or from factors inherent in the task
being performed.

18. As teachers, we hope to promote intrinsic
motivation in our students as it encourages life-long
learning. It is difficult to encourage intrinsic
motivation all of the time, however, especially
because we spend over 900 hours per year in the
classroom. Some strategies for promoting intrinsic
motivation include arousing interest in the subject
matter, maintaining curiosity, using a variety of
interesting presentation modes, and helping students
set their own goals.

19. About 80% of the Filipino poor live in the rural areas of the
country. These are towns located deep in the mountains and
the rice fields. The population density in the rural parts of the
country is low, and there is a corresponding deficiency in
schools and classrooms.
Public school is free, but families still cannot afford to send
their children for a complicated network of reasons. In
agriculture-based communities where farming is the primary
livelihood, having children around to help with the work
means more income for the family.

20. They are pulled from school for two or
three months at a time and are irreparably
disadvantaged compared with their classmates.
So, they may have to repeat the year, only to be
pulled out of school again next year.
A number of other strategies such as
student choice, demonstrating the relevance or
usefulness of content, and collaboration can
also help encourage intrinsic motivation.

21. Transportation is another big problem. Kids walk
as far as 20 kilometres or more to and from school
every day. They have to cross rivers and climb hills
with their book bags. The ones that can afford it take
a tricycle, but that is a luxury. Schools are sometimes
too far for the most remote communities to
practically access. So the families can’t afford to pay
and the children are pulled from school.

22. BUCANA BUNGLAS NATIONAL
HIGH SCHOOL
After a tiresome walk, the thirst for knowledge is quenched inside this
school..

23. It seems like an intractable problem. Corruption in
the education bureaucracy and a lack of resources
make delivering a high-quality education to all
Filipinos a challenge. History has shown that it is an
achievable goal.
But real systemic change needs to come from
above. As long as corruption and bureaucracy
paralyzes the system, the goal of delivering a decent
education to children – which pays dividends to the
country in the long run – will remain out of reach.

24. METHODOLOGY
Respondents to this work were students coming from
Silagon, Nino and Tamis-ac who do the walking every day.
A phenomenology/hermeneutics approach to gathering
information for this study was used. This approach uses
interview and questionnaire. The focus of this study was to
capture the central meaning of experiences from several
individuals, which, according to Heppner and Heppner (2004)
would best be obtained using a phenomenology approach.
In order to elicit the information needed for this study, I
prepared a questionnaire which contains the following
questions:

25. 1. Daw ano ka importante
ang pag-eskwela para sa imo?
2. Ano ang naga-motivate sa imo nga
maglakat adlaw adlaw agod nga
makaeskwela?
3. Ano ang mga nanamian mo
gid kon ara ka sa eskwelahan?

26. 1. Daw ano ka importante ang pag-eskwela para sa
imo?
•obtaining education will help not only their
selves but the family as well
•a prospect of bright future
• to reciprocate the sacrifices of their parents;
•get out from the quagmire of poverty;
•obtain further knowledge in school
• and education could be passport to land a
better job someday.

27. Ano ang naga-motivate sa imo nga maglakat adlaw adlaw agod nga makaeskwela?
The second question that was raised was
what motivates them to walk to school every
day. Their reason why they endure the long
walk going to school were
• to turn sacrifices into happiness,
• because of poverty,
• mingle with their fellow students,
• teacher factor ,
• learn new lessons and
•win new friends.

28. As the educator of these students, I was moved
to keep their motivation burning inside them
because from their responses, they are all in
congruence that one of the moving forces why
they endure the challenge of going to school
everyday despite the hardship was:
• ang amon mga maestro kag maestra nga
nagasacrifice gid para mapaalam kami,
•si mam kag si sir, nga nagatudlo gid sa amon
sang mga lessons kag mga values para
magamit namon.”

29. One of the recurring responses was the alleviation of
poverty. The desire to get out from the clutches of this
social menace was an impetus for these students that they
endure the long walk in order to obtain education.

30. Poverty alleviation was a recurring answer

31. It can be noted that based from the dichotomy
of the nature of motivation, most of these students
are extrinsically motivated. Their motivation to study
springs not from the inherent desire to learn, but they
are motivated because of external factors that were
already presented. Several studies suggest academic
motivation seems to change as students get older.

32. According to Daniels and Arapostathis
(2005), students’ level of motivation may
be affected by the change in teaching
relationships from elementary school,
where participation is encouraged, to high
school, where the focus is primarily on
academic grades.

33. Therefore, it appears that student motivation
may change as student’s age. The age of the
student has also been shown to affect their level of
motivation. In addition, this study suggested that
motivation may change over time.
Physiological factors are also deemed to be
influential in the transference and the readiness of
the learning process (Knoll, 2003).
Students could learn best when their body is free
from any pains caused by a long walk which
requires physical exertion.

34. It has been mentioned that teachers should
encouraged intrinsic motivation among our
students. Meaning to say, that our learners
should love learning because of learning itself.
There is an apparent need to inculcate this
among our students. Its true that education
could lead as to our better future, but it
depends on the quality of education and how
this education influenced these students-how
will they fare in the greater arena called life.

35. Walls are made of bricks. The strength of the
wall depends on the strength of individuals bricks.
Yes, these students are the individual bricks that
make our society. Empowering them is tantamount to
building a strong society upon which this humanity is
built. If some students enjoy the convenience brought
by revolution in transportation, these less-privileged
students deserve to be given attention to make them
feel that, in the intricate web of life we are all
connected.

36. The responses that were discussed
were just icing from the cake and may not
totally represent the sentiments of the
entire studentry. But somehow, it gives us
the overview of some grim conditions that
some of our students have to face to win
their daily battles.

37. Flowers wither and trees die, in no time a
new seed will germinate and the new journey
begins.
IN THE CASE OF THESE STUDENTS,AS
LONG AS SOME COMPONENTS OF OUR
INSTITUTIONS REMAIN DYSFUNCTIONAL,
THEIR TRAVAILS WILL PERENNIALLY REMAIN IN
ITS VICIOUS CYCLE.

38. Thank you for sharing a walk with me. I hope that
through this, their story be will be heard.
The long walk home dawns, leaving in its wake, the
promise of another day..

39. Thank you for Listening..!!!!
JENEWEL M. AZUELO
TEACHER I, BUCANA BUNGLAS NHS