“Blessed are you who sow.

Every seed you so plant, will grow into bountiful

crops for great harvest.” – Lailah Gifty Akita

A seed was planted on the rich soil of Brgy. Sta. Elena, Tacloban City that

turned into a valuable tree that until now bears great benefits for its residents. Sta.

Elena Elementary School, a community learning institution that was built for its

residents in 1953, is one of the thirteen schools in District Learning Center I found in

the northern part and refer to as the one of the Agricultural Communities in Tacloban

City.

Sta. Elena is a small rural barangay on the northern part of Tacloban City, 17

kilometres from the city proper of Tacloban City and 8 kilometres away from the

famous 2.5 kilometres San Juanico Bridge of the Province of Leyte and Samar. This is

bound from the north by Barangay Tagpuro and the south by Barangay New

Kawayan, on the west San Miguel, Leyte, and on the east Babatngon, Leyte. The

barangay can be reached by multicabs, jeepneys, cars, tricycles, busses and has a

regular daily trip of jeepneys to and from the downtown area of Tacloban City.

The school’s motto “Expanded learning time gives the option to declare no

failure, time to ensure that all will succeed.” was passed on and now is continuously

being lived up to by its educators today. Despite the fact that some of the teachers are

not residents of the barangay, the mere circumstance stands alone as an inspirational

reason to travel each day to help in nurturing the goals of these young dreamers. The

school’s Project KAUGOP (Knowing, Assessing, Understanding Gaps that Obstruct

Pupils and School Performance) was implemented in order to improve the students’

performance in certain aspects such as; improve pupils performance (reading, literacy,

numeracy and NAT performance), enrich pupils competency, enhance stakeholders

participation in school programs and projects , enrich agricultural competency among

pupils and parents, and create projects that are learner’s friendly.

This School Year 2018-2019, the school administrators and its educators

worked hand in hand in order to further expose, explore, and let the students

experience lifelong learning activities by joining different kinds of competitions that

leads a result of 2.3 level in School Based Management and aiming for level 3.

The school since its establishment is continuously implementing programs and

projects for the betterment of its students. With the help of various organizations, both

international and non-government, helped hand in hand to make the school’s projects

reach its full realization. An example of an on-going program of the school which is

sponsored and co-spearheaded by Lions International, through its council here in

Tacloban City, is the feeding program intended to support and maintain the wellness

of the pupils. It is without a doubt that the guiding principles of the organization is

aligned with the school’s core values which gives great importance to the

development and overall well-being of students. The program which is until now up

and running, sustains students with nutritious food with fresh vegetables handpicked

from the school’s garden.

Lions International gave plenty of benefits to its beneficiaries such as;

alleviates the health and developmental consequences of childhood malnutrition,

higher school attendance, improved concentrations and energy level in students,

burden off parents and guardians’ shoulder and in the long term, the local community

will begin to rise above poverty as more children complete their basic education.

The Gulayan sa Paaralan was one of the programs that was implemented in

Sta. Elena Elementary School that aimed to boost awareness of the young children on
the significance of growing vegetables. However, it did not only open their eyes to the

reality of how hard it is to maintain and support growing vegetables, but also, taught

them to be patient and to work as one in order to achieve prosperity in the end. To

achieve the full realization of the project, the school just like the others from different

divisions, coordinated with local government offices. The City Agriculturist Office of

Tacloban City and the Department of Agriculture donated vegetable seeds and soil

fertilizers as starter packs for the Gulayan sa Paaralan project of the school. It was

carried out and maintained with the help of the faculty and staff as well as the students

and their parents who supported in many ways.

The school may be away from the city life but this fact alone did not stop the

people in it to create a mark and make the school recognized. The school’s

administrators, educators, and students, used this to their advantage and made possible

of countless opportunities for everyone. Its success in implementing the Gulayan sa

Paaralan is just its first step in achieving and carrying out the objectives of various

programs by the Department of Education while instilling in the hearts and minds of

the people how patience becomes a virtue, and how hard work and determination can

create breakthroughs. It is just indeed one milestone of many for school and in the

mere future, it will also be recognized by all.

The school’s standing today is the mere proof of the project’s affectivity in

fostering knowledge and development of its students. The success of the students’

progress and development in Gulayan sa Paaralan its way to represent the entire

school in the division level. In addition to that, the various programs and projects

implemented by the Department of Education also helped not only in promoting

camaraderie and comradeship in the school, but also made possible of developing

critical thinking skills by enhancing their cooperative minds to efficiently carry out
the objectives of such programs and projects.

A very good determinant of willingness to implement a project is on how

much value you put on that particular subject matter. Primary and secondary schools

should learn or appreciate the value of sustaining vegetable gardens not only limited

to feeding and nutrition purposes but also because gardening skills among children

preserves local and scientific knowledge especially on organic farming that is helpful

for the environment. More importantly, as pupils work in team to create gardens, they

develop or instill core values that are now diminishing because of the presence of

some technologies. These values are honesty, perseverance, hardwork and team work.

These are the reflections from one successful “Gulayan sa Paaralan” in Sta.Elena

Elementary School.

The project was administered and successfully implemented most especially

with the technical assistance of various division stakeholders, through our Division

Superintendent Dr. Thelma Quitalig, Assistant School Division Superintendent, Dr.

Noberto N. Mangaliman, Chief, Curriculum Implementation Division, Mark Chester

Anthony G. Tamayo, Chief, School Governance and Operations Division, Dr.

Melanie D. Escobarte and Education Program Supervisors including Ma’am Evelyn

P. Malubay and Mr. Danilo Guido, our School District Supervisor Ma’am Annie D.

Pagatpat who tirelessly supported the school’s project. The school certainly sustained

its project implementation and this made possible of its recognition in the division

level competition. With hard work and cooperation, its bountiful product gained the

school’s award and represented the Division of Tacloban City in the Regionals where

the institution also garnered great recognition because of its effort to maintain the

project’s sustainability.
 The school may be away from the city life but this fact alone did not stop the

people in it to create a mark and make the school recognized. The school’s

administrators, educators, and students, used this to their advantage and made possible

of countless opportunities for everyone. Its success in implementing the Gulayan sa

Paaralan is just its first step in achieving and carrying out the objectives of various

programs by the Department of Education while instilling in the hearts and minds of

the people how patience becomes a virtue, and how hard work and determination can

create breakthroughs. It is just indeed one milestone of many for school and in the

mere future, it will also be recognized by all.

Numbers and figures may be indicators of success and achievement, however,

values formation and character development of students shall always the basis of

fulfillment. There is greater importance engraved in these numbers – it is the will and

passion of an educator; the attempt of each to illuminate the lives of its students as

many and as efficiently as possible.

It is hope of the school to consistently maintain its achievement with regards

to the development of Gulayan sa Paaralan by engaging the different sectors in the

community to properly advocate and enhance parents and stakeholders participation

and to continuously improve the vegetable production of the school, thus attending

trainings on vegetable production can help the parents staff, stakeholders to provide

necessary equipments, tools and often resources for agricultural creations specifically

in Gulayan sa Paaralan in Sta. Elena Elementary School.

The health and nutrition of our pupils is a crucial factor affecting their

academic performance. By making food more accessible to a larger number of

learners, we can better ensure the success of each children.

 The “Gulayan sa Paaralan” was a modest replication of the “Gulayan ng

Masa” served as one of the best practice of Sta. Elena Elementary School- created a

vital contribution in agricultural awareness and development specially to our young

learners. 

Gulayan sa paaralan is a DepEd program which utelizes available lots around

the school to be cultivated and planted with vegetables, assisting the theory in the

classroom to be realistic and to be carried in a practical wayby pupils in the higher

grades ( Grgade 4-6 ) especially those taking up the EPP class.

At Sta. Elena Elementary School ,the Gulayan sa Paaralan is a yearly program

initiated by the school administration ,together with Mrs. Janice C. Lavilla ,the school

coordinator sa of Gulayan sa Paaralan along with the parents who are members of the

GPTA, Pupils and other school stakeholders who devoted time in order to come up

with more simpler in producing vegetables that could support the school feeding oe

the school.
MONTH ACTIVITY/IES PERSONS BUDGET ACTUAL
INVOLVE ACCOMPLISHMENT

JANUARY First cropping of Principal,Pare 4000 Planted different kinds of

TO MAY gulayan sa Paaralan nts,Teachers, vegetables
2018 Pupils
JUNE 2018 Conduct   300 All parents in SEES
  pentakasi for   helped the
JUNE TO gulayan sa Principal,Pare cleanliness of the
OCTOBER paaralan nts,Teachers, gulayan
2018 Second cropping Pupils Planted different kinds
of Gulayan sa of vegetables
Paaralan  

JULY 2018 The parents in     Cleanerd their

every grade     respective area
level are   500 Maintained the
cleaning their Principal,Pare cleanliness of their
respective nts,Teachers, respective arrea.
area Pupils
Plant different
kinds of
vegetable in
their
respective
arera

NOVEMBE Division evaluation Division   Winner of

R 2018 of Best personel,Principa   best
Implementing l implementi
Gulayan sa Paaralan 200 ng Gulayan
2018 sa Paaralan
2018
( Non
Central)
DECEMBE Regional eveluation Region   Regional
R 2018 of Best personel,Principa   entry of
Implementing l best
Gulayan sa Paaralan 200 implementi
 2018 ng gulayan
sa paaralan
2018
( Non
Central)
DECEMBE Third cropping of Principal,Parents,   Planted different kinds
R 2018- gulayan sa paaralan Teachers,Pupils   of vegetables
MARCH      
2019     3000  
Maitain the  
cleanliness of the Parents are continued
garden their support in
maintaining the
cleanliness of the
garden
 

PICTORIALS:

GULAYAN SA PAARALAN

LAND PREPARATION
PLANTING ACTIVITIES
 MAINTAINING THE CLEANLINESS AND DEVELOPMENT OF PLANTED
VEGETABLES
 
 COMMUNITY REPLICATION OF SCHOOL GULAYAN SA PAARALAN