Back in the early 1960s, graduates of the elementary schools in the rural areas had two choices: plow the fields or leave the home, stay in a boarding house in the town proper to pursue a high school degree.
Sa malalaking bayan lang may High School noong araw at halos lahat ay pag-mamay-ari ng mga pribadong grupo or religious congregations just like the Notre Dame Schools in Cotabato ran by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate or the Oblates of Notre Dame Sisters.
It was in 1964 when the Education Department introduced the first Barrio High School in Bactad, Urdaneta, Pangasinan and in 1966, the program was introduced all over the country.
The Barrio High School Program reached my village, Nueva Vida, M’lang, Cotabato in 1966 just as I was graduating from the Elementary Grades.
Since I was the class valedictorian, I wanted to go to Ateneo de Davao HIgh School but my father, Bernardo, who was the school principal, would have none of it.
“How could I convince other parents to send their children to the Barrio High School if my own child goes to Ateneo?,” I remember Tatay asking me.
My father was a very principled and honest man. For us children, his word was the law.
Today, I proudly announce that I am a product of the Barrio High School Program who became Mayor, Governor, Vice Governor, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of the Mindanao Development Authority and the first and only Filipino Secretary of Agriculture to chair the biennial conference of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome from 2017 to 2019.
#ProudBarrioAthlete!
#BarrioHighSchoolGraduate!
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