Trekking Through Perilions Trails in Search of Education

Without exception education has always been a priority among the people in Sarawak. This has been equally so with the ethnic communities living in the interior of this vast state.

Since our first firm contact with Europeans during the time of the rule of the 'White Rajah" right up to now our forefathers and our parents today have been aware of the importance of providing a sound education for their children. While their awareness has been obvious all along it has been another story when it has come to achieving such aims.

Sarawak's physical environment has for decades been a stumbling block in our quest to seek a better education and a way of life on par with those living in the towns along the coast. This is particularly so in the interior where thick jungle, mountains and swift-flowing streams criss-cross naturals trails creating an almost insurmountable wall. Back in those early days neither road or air links existed. The only means of travel in many instances was on foot between longhouses and the nearest school.

A good example of the people living in the interior is that my village Long Banga and its surrounding communities. The nearest secondary school was in Bario in the Kelabit Highlands. The distance between these two points as the crow flies is about 60km but to undertake a land journey might easily required four to five days of hard jungle trekking for parents and school children alike. Food, clothing and other necessities had to be piggy-backed the whole way. These journeys from home to school and back necessitated staying overnight in rough jungle shelters along the way.

On these journeys the traveler was very much at the mercy of nature at what it might through at him. Numerous incidents have accured where children have been either killed or injured by falling trees. These and many other challenges had to be faced and overcome in those days before any proper system of transport and communication come into being.

Added to these woes was the knowledge that both parents and children alike suffered great emotional stress as they had to endure long periods of separation and loneliness through missing their loved ones. In those days the mobile phone and public phone was not even a part of one's every day vocabulary!.

Despite all these obstacles and setbacks our people showed a remarkable degree of fortitude and perserverance and they should rightly be called our 'Pioneers' and Heroes. They set the standards for our present-day generation of parents and school-going children to emulate in our quest for better education and hopefully brighter future.