CONVERTING ORPHANAGES INTO BOARDING SCHOOLS

 CONVERTING ORPHANAGES INTO BOARDING SCHOOLS

Sometimes, the solution to a long-standing social problem is not revolutionary at all. Sometimes, it is simply a matter of branding — and courage.

The word orphanage carries a heavy stigma. It quietly labels a child as someone to be pitied, someone “left behind,” someone different. That label follows children to school, to job interviews, and even into adulthood. But what if we remove the label altogether? What if we stop calling these institutions orphanages and start calling them what they can truly become: boarding schools?

At one level, this is just rebranding. But rebranding matters. A “boarding school” produces students and scholars, not charity cases. It reframes childhood from survival to preparation, from dependency to potential.

At another level, it is deeply practical. Children living in orphanages already reside in one place. Turning these into boarding schools means they no longer need to commute long distances just to attend classes — a daily burden for many poor and indigenous children. In remote areas and ancestral domains, some children still walk hours to reach the nearest public school. A boarding school solves that problem overnight.

In fact, this setup is not very different from home schooling — except that it is done collectively, professionally, and with structure. Because students no longer waste hours traveling, they gain time. And time is the most valuable educational resource. With it, schools can offer additional subjects: digital skills, agriculture, entrepreneurship, food processing, basic accounting, even climate science.

Teachers, too, benefit from this model. Some could live on campus, making them available to tutor slow learners after regular school hours. Others could commute. And with today’s technology, many lectures can be delivered online. If online teaching is allowed, the pool of volunteer teachers — retired educators, overseas Filipinos, even foreign volunteers — suddenly becomes very large.

This boarding school concept becomes even more powerful when applied to children in ancestral domains. It addresses education access without forcing displacement. Children stay within their communities while receiving quality instruction, rather than being sent to distant towns where they slowly lose cultural identity.

But education should not stop at textbooks. These schools should teach life skills. Students can learn how to cook their own meals, wash their own laundry, manage schedules, and work in teams. These are not menial tasks; they are lessons in dignity and self-reliance.

Better still, many of these boarding schools can double as farm schools. Students can learn how to grow poultry, livestock, fish, fruits, and vegetables — not as punishment, but as applied science. Agriculture becomes biology, chemistry, economics, and entrepreneurship rolled into one. Food grown on campus feeds the students first, reducing costs. Surplus can be sold, teaching market discipline and even generating school income.

This approach is gaining attention in 2025 as a “dignity-first” alternative to institutional care, especially for indigenous communities. It reflects a broader government push toward deinstitutionalization, led by agencies such as the National Authority for Child Care (NACC). Large, traditional orphanages are increasingly seen as harmful to long-term development. Boarding schools, when done right, offer a family-like environment anchored on shared purpose.

There is also the looming “aging out” crisis. Many children leave orphanages at 18 with no skills, no savings, and no safety net. Boarding schools with technical-vocational tracks directly address this. Graduates leave not empty-handed, but job-ready — or even enterprise-ready.

Ultimately, this is a shift from a charity-based mindset to an empowerment-based one. From handouts to skill-building. From short-term care to long-term national investment.

If food security is national security, then educating children to grow food, manage land, and think scientifically is not just social work — it is nation-building.

The question, then, is not whether we should convert orphanages into boarding schools. The real question is: why haven’t we done this sooner?

RAMON IKE V. SENERES

www.facebook.com/ike.seneres iseneres@yahoo.com senseneres.blogspot.com 01-21-2027

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