Robec June Calunia, a 12-year-old valedictorian of Mount Diwata Elementary School, was among 10 students who received a 10-gram (one-third ounce) gold medal last Friday, said Francisco Tito, leader of southern Diwalwal village who came up with the idea.

The aim is to encourage students — children of small-scale gold miners — to excel in school, he said.

Mountainous Diwalwal is home to 40,000 settlers, most of them miners. Tito said he thought of the program six years ago when he saw an impoverished mother weeping after unsuccessfully trying to pawn her sick child’s fake gold-painted school medal.

“I thought, `Why not give the children real gold medals.’ Anyway, we have gold here,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Since 2003, village leaders have solicited gold contributions from miners for 10 medals a year. It costs 11,000 pesos (US$263; euro166) to produce each of the 16-karat medals.

They go to the top honor students in grades one through six at the 1,200-pupil Mount Diwata Elementary School and to students in the first through fourth years at the 750-student Union High School, Tito said.

The two are the only public schools in the village, while the rest are privately run.

“The students are inspired. In fact, the competition has become stiff because some parents from nearby villages with bright kids now send their children to school in Diwalwal,” Tito said.

It was the fifth gold medal for Calunia, a consistent top honor except for one year, he said.

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