ad info


Asiaweek TIMEASIA.com CNN.com
 > magazine
 home
 intelligence
 web features
 magazine archive
 technology
 newsmap
 customer service
 subscribe
 TIMEASIA.COM
 CNN.COM
  east asia
  southeast asia
  south asia
  central asia
  australasia
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 SHOWBIZ
 ASIA WEATHER
 ASIA TRAVEL

Other News
TIME.com
TIME Europe
FORTUNE.com
FORTUNE China
MONEY.com
Asiaweek Services
Contact Asiaweek
About Asiaweek
Media Kit
Get up to 3 months of Asiaweek free when you subscribe online!


JULY 7 , 2000 VOL. 29 NO. 26 | SEARCH ASIAWEEK

The Throwaway Libraries
How discarded books are filling young minds
By RICARDO SALUDO

They are called DDU schools — deprived, depressed and underserved. There are thousands of them all over the Philippines, in places where appalling poverty, dismal transport and battering by the elements snuff out children's hopes even before they learn their ABCs. One of those DDUs was Emilio Aguinaldo Integrated Elementary School, a four-story affair with about 2,000 students next to decrepit tenement housing in Manila's Santa Ana district. Most of its sixth-graders used to fail the National Educational Achievement Test taken in the last elementary year, the second-worst results among 65 public schools in the city. NEAT's English portion, says a longtime teacher, was "the Waterloo of the kids."

It's easy to see why. In DDU schools, all the students have to read are worn-out books and mimeographed materials, with hardly any pictures or color. The library is a single, dilapidated shelf in a poorly lit room, and the several dozen books in it are under lock and key. Full-color science and math books and even dictionaries are as rare as money on trees. Many local textbooks are riddled with errors of grammar, spelling and fact. No wonder a third of public-school pupils drop out in the first couple of grades, and another 30% never reach high school.

That's the dismal situation San Francisco-based Books for the Barrios and its Philippine partner, Books for the Barangay, have been tirelessly working to remedy. Since 1981, when pilot Dan Harrington and his wife Nancy began its work, Books for the Barrios has provided thousands of mostly DDU schools with high-quality books from America — some 4 million of them, at the last count — as well as computers and teacher training in recent years. The two entities have also singled out 30 schools for their Models of Excellence (MOE) program to lift their standards to among the best in the country.

In the mid-1990s, Aguinaldo Integrated joined the MOE program. Its library got an encyclopedia, glossy National Geographic and other science books, and many other colorful publications (but no history books, to avoid nationalist objections). Students were encouraged to borrow for home reading and school work. The two NGOs also prodded city and education authorities to refurbish the buildings — a condition for their materials donation and MOE programs.

In recent years came computers (used but still usable), and Aguinaldo teachers joined a seminar organized by Books for the Barrios for some 2,000 educators every year. The results have been astounding. In the NEAT the school jumped to No. 27 among 65 Manila public schools, and every one of its students passed. In a quiz competition among 10 schools, including those for exceptional students, Aguinaldo came in fourth. There are similar results elsewhere. A rural school on Negros island, central Philippines, saw its NEAT pass rate leap from 10% to 100% in just a year.

"Books are an equalizer — if you are diligent and bright, you can learn," says Books for the Barangay treasurer Michael Cheng. He works part-time without pay for the NGO based in suburban San Juan. Cheng and his friend and fellow businessman Michael Fernandez, the group's president, got roped into the volunteer work in 1996, after meeting Nancy Harrington at a dinner. Now in their 50s, she and her husband are zealous promoters of the mission they began in 1981. Nancy is willing to be pushy with inertia-prone officials. "Every Filipino child has the right to education," says Dan, who supervises book shipments when he isn't flying. Platoons of American schoolchildren help pack the materials, which may include games and puzzles. They go to some pretty forlorn places, including one in the south that is partly submerged every day.

When they started, Dan was navyman in the old Subic base, west of Manila. For the first seven years the couple got the U.S. Navy and Philippine Airlines to move the books, which were either unsold copies from publishers or discarded textbooks (American public schools replace them every four years). These days, shipment costs are partly covered by sponsors like AT&T, National Geographic, Madrigal Wan Hai shipping and LBC air cargo. Individuals pitch in; San Francisco tycoon Charles Mosser funded a hilltop school in his wife's native Negros. City and provincial officials also help raise the $10,000 needed for each shipment.

At Aguinaldo Integrated, the books are stirring minds and hearts. Fourth-grader Chatty loves reading about plants and animals and wants to study biology. Her classmate Christine is thinking of a writing career. Edinel devours math books, while Ronel fancies helping injured animals like those he sees in science books. Thanks to Books for the Barrios and its laudable supporters, what might have become landfill is spawning young Filipino dreams.

Write to Asiaweek at mail@web.asiaweek.com

This edition's table of contents | Asiaweek.com Home

AsiaNow


Quick Scroll: More stories from Asiaweek, TIME and CNN

   LATEST HEADLINES:

WASHINGTON
U.S. secretary of state says China should be 'tolerant'

MANILA
Philippine government denies Estrada's claim to presidency

ALLAHABAD
Faith, madness, magic mix at sacred Hindu festival

COLOMBO
Land mine explosion kills 11 Sri Lankan soldiers

TOKYO
Japan claims StarLink found in U.S. corn sample

BANGKOK
Thai party announces first coalition partner



TIME:

COVER: President Joseph Estrada gives in to the chanting crowds on the streets of Manila and agrees to make room for his Vice President

THAILAND: Twin teenage warriors turn themselves in to Bangkok officials

CHINA: Despite official vilification, hip Chinese dig Lamaist culture

PHOTO ESSAY: Estrada Calls Snap Election

WEB-ONLY INTERVIEW: Jimmy Lai on feeling lucky -- and why he's committed to the island state



ASIAWEEK:

COVER: The DoCoMo generation - Japan's leading mobile phone company goes global

Bandwidth Boom: Racing to wire - how underseas cable systems may yet fall short

TAIWAN: Party intrigues add to Chen Shui-bian's woes

JAPAN: Japan's ruling party crushes a rebel ì at a cost

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans need to have more babies. But success breeds selfishness


Launch CNN's Desktop Ticker and get the latest news, delivered right on your desktop!

Today on CNN
 Search
  ASIAWEEK'S LATEST
Web-only Exclusives
November 30, 2000

From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War
A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix

From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead
Bad news for the Philippines - and some others

From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies
Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights?


  THIS EDITION
COVER STORY
MP3: Technically, it's just a way to send soundwaves over the Internet, but MP3 is causing a music business meltdown as artists, pirates and entrepreneurs try to profit from the chaos
Gadgets: Get your tunes of your desktop and on the move

THE NATIONS
JAPAN: The election leaves everybody a loser, even the voters
Opposition: Better, but not yet ready for prime time

HONG KONG: Unpopular Tung Chee-hwa might just stick around

INDONESIA: Inside Abdurrahman Wahid's sinking presidency
Enlightenment: What Wahid as kyai says about the president
Focus: It's the economy, stupid
Separatism: Independence fever has cooled for the moment

Viewpoint: Reform the IMF to avoid a new Asian Crisis

ARTS & SCIENCES
Bookworms: Bringing high quality reading to schools all across the Philippines

Genome: What the draft map of our chromosomes heralds

Chromosome 21: Japanese-led mappers recall their long haul

Newsmakers: Bhichit Rattakul, the Thai up-and-comer

TECHNOLOGY
Update: The moment of truth for Pacific Century CyberWorks

Cutting Edge: Home movies have come a long way

BUSINESS
China's IPOs: This year, the number: of new initial public offerings in China is likely to exceed all other previous listings combined. Chalk it up to the WTO

Cash-poor: Asking investors to do what the government won't

Video Play: Sega struggles to score in online games
Sony: The unbeatable PlayStation 2 proves its market worth

Investing: In Korea, technology stocks still have admirers

Business Buzz: Joyce Ma finally finds a suitable suitor

EDITORIALS
Shield: The U.S. missile defense system could endanger peace

Universities: Asia's varsities should get on the Net -- carefully

LETTERS
What's next for the Koreas?

TO OUR READERS
Asiaweek's very moving experience

NEWSMAP
This week's news round-up by country

STATISTICS
The Bottom Line: Asiaweek's ranking of world economies, now online


Back to the top   © 2000 Asiaweek. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.