LAGAWE, Ifugao — A meaningful thought about teachers isn’t something you can establish and easily forget.
This is precisely what took place during and after the Teacher’s Day celebration program of the Banaue District of the Schols Division Office-Ifugao. Board Member James Frederick Dulnuan cited the need for initiatives to accelerate the development of a pipeline of bankable and reliable infrastructure projects through the collaboration of various stakeholders.
Board Member Dulnuan told recently a large crowd of mentors, students, local officials and guests to continue recognizing and honoring the contributions of teachers in the field of educating and empowering the young.
Dulnuan, chairman of the committee on education and public information, stressed the importance of their diligent efforts in and out of the classrooms.
“Having been raised by a teacher myself, I have seen first-hand, the hard work and the sacrifices of teachers, especially for those assigned or situated under hard and difficult circumstances,” he said.
“I issued the call to act swiftly and decisively on the matter of enacting Sangguniang Panlalawigan Resolution 2015-4080 in support of House Bill 245 and Senate Bill 2351, to increase teachers’ salaries and provide other benefits,” he said. His call, though sounded under difficult circumstances, has been heeded by his colleagues.
“My big concern is the failure to continuously support and answer the needs of our teachers,” he bewailed.
“In the long term, it can be disastrous. Then, we have so much to worry about,” he added.
Looking at the broader picture, the officialdom is largely to be blamed for the missed opportunity to resuscitate the ailing public school education system.
It is indeed a pity that highly-placed officials, in the national level, failed to revive the high status of public elementary and high school teachers on one hand and stop the decline of the standards of education. For one, facilities are antiquated, dilapidated and damaged. School-based projects are generally underfunded. In contrast, non-essential outlays are heavily funded. Foreign trip junkets are frequent.
“I salute you for your commitment to serve, and unceasing dedication to work and we at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan are also working very hard to help all those in the education sector in acknowledgement of their heroism and scarifices,” he quipped.
“This is certainly the magnitude of our work at hand,” he emphasized.
It means that Board Member Dulnuan’s inspirational message resonates beyond this all-important activity, rejuvenated with higher and firmer tones.
Dulnuan gave a motivating talk based on the encompassing theme for this year’s gathering on “Gurong Pilipino: Kaagapay sa Progreso” (“Filipino Teacher: Partner for Progress”).
Dulnuan’s brand of compassion and caring leadership is what drove many to gather at the Banaue Central School gymnasium for the occasion. Driven by his commitment to strengthen the link between the government and the education sector, Dulnuan continues to yield to the clamor to reach out and find common cause a wide spectrum of highly-motivated increase-your-knowhow personnel such as school principals, school teachers and others.
It should be remembered, however, that the task of transforming the youth into productive members of society is not something educators do and accomplish without the assistance of many others. In fact, it also involves parents as well as municipal and barangay government officials and even non-teaching personnel. Small wonder, Banaue Mayor Jerry Dalipog and Poblacion Punong Barangay Fernando Bahatan led the way in exhorting the teachers to also take an active hand in implementing the town’s overall development program. Mayor Dalipog and Punong Barangay Bahatan have always been committed towards protecting the wellbeing of teachers. This holds true with the Banaue Central School principal Elizabeth Ognayan and all other principals in the ever-active Banaue district. Mrs. Ognayan, also a speaker and former principal of Lagawe Central School, underscored the significance of the World Teachers’ Day program.
The highly-successful program is an excellent way of acknowledging the hard-earned efforts of teachers for a job well done. At the Department of Education, which accounted for the largest workforce in the country, the saga of bringing back the glorious era of the public school education system is back. Like it or not, a public school teacher for a very long time now felt the burden of the difficult economic times. Going forward, it is imperative then for the government to quickly alleviate the plight of overworked but underpaid teachers to protect them against the terrifying shock of the high cost of living so that their welfare would continue to be safeguarded. **By Anthony A. Araos
