By Franklin P. Gumapon
ZAMBOANGA CITY - Intelligent people are no babblers. When
they speak, they are wise and sensible. And now here’s a guy who is one of them:
Mohammad Shafiq Lahaman Kiram, 28, a Sama-Banguingui, a tribe that belongs to
the Indigenous Peoples (IP) in Western Mindanao.
When the Philippine Information Agency (PIA)-9 was
conducting a journalistic writing workshop for IP college students and out-of-school
youth in Zamboanga City last June 10-11, there was this participant who
silently sat at the back but paid attention to the lecture. Never did he raise
any question during the lecture as most participants usually do to show off
their abilities. He is quiet but with deep-seated intelligence.
Shafiq, as he is fondly called, is a resident of Putik,
Zamboanga City. He took up and finished Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSE)
major in English at the Western Mindanao State University (WMSU), Zamboanga
City as a scholar under the Educational Assistance Program (EAP) of the
National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). And he had proved to the NCIP
that he deserved the scholarship as he graduated from his BSE degree Cum Laude!
His feat has banished the label uncaring individuals portray
the IP people as being slow, laidback and naïve. In his essay submitted to the
NCIP, Shafiq wrote: “The early years of
my college life was not easy. I already anticipated that I would meet different
people with varied personalities, different upbringings, and dissimilar
cultural context. With these things in mind, much adjustment was done. Hence, I
had to deal with people sensitively… I only wear a simple get-up, just right
for my humble personality.”
Need for quality
education
Shafiq confided that the most defining experience in his
life during his college days was his practice teaching. “I was awakened by the
reality that our schoolchildren are in dire need of quality education and even
quality teachers,” he said. He realized that not only the IP communities are
deficient in quality education but in many public schools as well. “Hence, this
experience did not only provide me with a leeway to propel and improve my
pedagogical competence, but it also taught me life – nothing more, nothing
less,” he declared.
EAP scholars
For this school year, NCIP-9 has extended scholarships to
more than 300 IP college students throughout the region. Except for a few merit
scholars who are receiving P25 thousand financial assistance each per semester,
the rest are allotted P10 thousand each per semester. They are also encouraged
to study in state colleges and universities, which offer lower matriculation
fees.
Parting words to IP
scholars
Shafiq empathically appealed to IP scholars by saying: “In
the grand scheme of things, education is the key in achieving our dreams.
Dreams do come true. Trust me, it did happen to me. I believe others can do it,
too, only if they have the tenacity in all that they do. I am a Filipino, a
true-blooded Sama-Banguingui, a dreamer then, and now, a teacher fulfilling his
dreams.”