FEATURE: The Secret and Success of Pandakan PS

By Alfhadar Pajiji, Executive Assistant III, Office of the Regional Secretary 

I discovered many amazing things in Sulu when I had the chance to visit my hometown Jolo last week to attend and observe the SPAAM 2014 (Sulu Provincial Athletics Association Meet). One story that struck me most is about the Pandakan Primary School in the Municipality of Panglima Estino.

Pandakan Primary has around 150 pupils. It has only 5 teachers (3 with permanent status and the other 2 are volunteer teachers) teaching multigrade up to Grade 5.

Despite the odds, during their district meets, Pandakan Primary bested the other "big" schools of Panamao District which have an average of 800 pupils and more than 20 teachers. They excelled greatly both in athletics and academics that even though it had no participant in the Grade 6 category, Pandakan Primary was still able to bag the District Over-All Championship.

I was so intrigued about the story that I told the District Supervisor Ma'am Samha to arrange a meeting with the teachers of Pandakan Primary School. Unfortunately, Ma'am Samha had instructed them to accompany the district delegation back to their district so I was not able to meet them.

According to Ma'am Samha the 3 young male teachers were hired during Mujiv Hataman's administration. Under the stewardship of the young teachers headed by "Tuan Dani", the school's TIC, Pandakan Primary's performance continue to amaze everyone in the district. One of their secrets? Special classes even on Saturdays and Sundays!

At the closing ceremony of the SPAAM 2014, I told everyone about the story of Pandakan Primary- a feat that has not happen in the history of DepEd-ARMM. I said RS Jamar Kulayan together with RG Mujiv Hataman had recently organized trips for supervisors and mayors to places like Saranggani Province, which had remarkably improved their education indicators, to learn about their experience on how best to improve education performance and indicators in the ARMM provinces. I think and said it loud that it is about time to bring them all to Sulu and learn about the Pandakan Primary experience.

Note: At the SPAAM Closing Program, Ma'am Pilar Dumalanta, my former elementary teacher whom I picked as my "Tribute to my Teacher" recipient and now Sulu Division EPS had confirmed to me that Panamao District is now back in the academics. The contestant for the Grade 5 category from Pandakan Primary got the third place at the division level.