Iloilo school finds beauty in recycled materials

ILOILO CITY – Barroc Elementary School in Tigbauan, Iloilo, is creating something beautiful from discarded materials.

In this way, pupils, teachers, and parents work together to promote a clean and green environment.

Agnes T. Tantiado, the school’s principal, said maintaining cleanliness in the school grounds and collecting waste materials that accumulate daily had always been a major concern.

Until Tantiado came up with a brilliant idea. “What I did was to motivate my teachers to make our school beautiful and make use of all of our recyclable materials that are found in our school and in our locality,” she said.

Tantiado said the school, with its approved School Improvement Plan (SIP) launched its “Byutipul Iskul” project this year to promote a clean and green environment as well as create an orderly and child-friendly school.

She said the project was timely because it responded to the government’s call for recycling and waste reduction.

“Our school conducted a competition dubbed 'Harapan Mo, Pagandahin Mo' in support of the project CGOBS (Clean, Green, Orderly and Beautiful School),” she said.

The pupils, teachers and parents collaborated to assemble colorful outdoor decorations out of the recyclable materials such as old tires, plastic soda bottles, and water containers.

“We made use of these waste materials to beautify our school in line with the CGOBS project,” Tantiado said.

Officials in barangays Atabayan and Barroc pitched in by adopting a certain area to clean and beautify.

“The contest proved how resourceful and innovative the teachers and parents are,” Tantiado said.

She said that the school plans to sustain this initiative, which is also in line with the school’s thrust of providing rich learning experiences to the school’s stakeholders.

“This is not only for our own good, for the children but for the good of everybody in the locality,” she said. (PIA)