ILOILO CITY – A teacher in Iloilo province has shown that banana leaves are environmentally-friendly alternative to paper during examinations.
Niel Christian C. Amaca, a part-time teacher at West Visayas State University (WVSU) in Calinog, Iloilo, instructed his students to bring banana leaves as answer sheet for a test in the subject Agri-120: Post-Harvest Handling and Seed Technology.
“I actually wanted to prove to my students what our elders said that in the old days, it’s also used as a writing material,” said Amaca in a phone interview with the Manila Bulletin. “I only wanted the class activity to be more exciting,” Amaca added.
Amaca, a licensed agriculturist, said that students are mostly familiar with banana leaves as packaging for local delicacies.
“They thought I was joking when I instructed them to bring banana leaves the day prior,” Amaca said.
Amaca said using banana leaves as answer sheet is a way for other students to start being more responsible and not rely on classmates to provide paper.
Banana leaves are not in short supply as the WVSU-Calinog has a banana plantation.
“I am not, in any way, saying that my students cannot afford to buy quiz papers,” added Amaca who had two sections of about 50 students using banana leaves in the test.
Photos of his students using banana leaves as paper went viral online.