Students of the West Visayas State University School of Agriculture in Calinog, Iloilo experienced what it means to be “environment-friendly” when they used banana leaves as their answer sheet instead of paper during a quiz on Wednesday.

“Our topic on our subject was about packaging and, as far as I can remember, banana leaves were used as main packaging materials before. So if we listened to (the) stories of our elders, they used banana leaves to wrap fish, bagoong, and other products,” licensed agriculturist and part-time instructor at the university, Niel Amaca, said in mixed English and Hiligaynon in an interview on Thursday.

Amaca advised his students to bring for the exam some banana leaves, which make a unique – and environment-friendly – replacement for paper.

“It’s not every day that a teacher gives a quiz, sometimes once a week and sometimes even none. It could be a good strategy to keep your students active in your class,” he said.

Amaca required it for the two sections of the Agri-120: Post-Harvest Handling and Seed Technology subject that he handles, consisting of 50 senior year students.

At first, the students could not believe they would be using banana leaves as writing material, he said.

“They asked me if I am serious and I said ‘yes’. We are using banana leaves because later on, I will relate that with our subject. And luckily, all of them brought banana leaves,” Amaca added.

Before using the fresh banana leaves, they were heated over fire so they would not easily tear.

He said students sourced the leaves within the campus because the school has a banana plantation.

Amaca added that they won’t be using the banana leaves all the time, although harvesting the leaves has no negative effect on the tree.

One large and wide leaf is also enough for one section’s use.

One disadvantage, however, is that they could not be stored for a long period.

“I told my students to keep them since it is their first time and they are already graduating,” he said, adding that their banana leaf answer sheets would remind them of him.

Amaca noted that because photos of his students holding their banana leaf answer sheets went viral on social media, their university, especially the Calinog campus, suddenly became popular. (PNA)