LAGAWE, IFUGAO – – When trying to describe the teacher’s feelings at the classroom, it is easy to say he or she is in jovial mood most of the time. But it can be far more realistic and satisfying to say there are less joyful moments too.
Normally, tales of joy and tears are heard over and over during the Teachers Month program. The teacher also wears color-designated shirts and takes part actively at one point or another in this annual event. And that was how the teacher found herself or himself in the center stage of the world in which the accolades are plenty.
Thus, all roads will lead to Lagawe on October 5.
October is a special month for teachers in Ifugao and elsewhere as they celebrate “National Teachers Month.”
Some 3,000 elementary and high school teachers and other education sector stakeholders around the province will converge at Don Bosco High School gymnasium to discuss the prevailing issues and concerns of educators during this all-important gathering. The Lagawe Central School gymnasium, venue of the program’s previous stagings, is presently under construction.
The month-long celebration actually started last September 5 with a motorcade in Lagawe.
Several activities have been scheduled to coincide with the yearly celebration of the National Teachers Month.
Schools Division Superintendent Gloria Buyao-ao shall lead this year’s celebration of Ifugao’s hardworking but underpaid mentors.
Buyao-ao said that it is time to recognize and honor the invaluable contributions of teachers in Philippine society.
In the first place, she said, teachers deserve full and concrete government support in their critical role in nation-building.
“There is no dispute of the fact that our teachers go an extra mile to make learning inside and outside of the classroom easier for the poor,” she said.
Secondly, she said, teachers all throughout these times continue to mold the minds of the young.
The Office of the Schools Division Superintendent sets itself apart by attending to the needs the teachers at all times. It prides itself of having gone the extra distance to adopt a proactive approach in expanding learning platforms in response to the challenges of the times.
Ms. Buyao-ao also urged teachers to be “financially fit” and develop the habit of transforming the lives of the youth through quality education.
In essence, a matter of knowing what financial literacy is all about is simply the best way out of these difficult economic times.
Earlier in an exclusive interview with the ZigZag Weekly, Bayao-ao also disclosed that her office is looking forward to having either Keryma magazine publisher and editor-in-chief Bo Sanchez or former Education Secretary Armin Luistro as the program’s keynote speaker.
If both are unavailable, an authoritative source disclosed that Department of Education (DedEd) Undersecretary for Administration Alain Del Pascua shall likely be the main speaker.
Incidentally, the same transformative mindset was behind the mounting clamor of public school teachers for “substantial increase” in their salaries. A pay increase is badly needed so they could cope up with the effect of the tax reform law. All told, the teachers were made to believe that they could bring home more because they are exempted from paying withholding tax. The amount of exemption simply went to paying the prices of the goods that continue to increase because of the controversial and unpopular Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law. Unabated increase of rice prices, for instance, is hurting teachers. It reached the point that many teachers are now cutting their expenditures on other fundamental needs of their families or loved ones.
Given the fact that inflation rate is presently so high and wages are stagnant, the teachers then were neatly taken for a ride by sugar-coated pronouncements that their withholding tax exemption scheme is heaven-sent.
Verily, the Duterte administration should quickly address this problem. It should proceed with utmost concern for raising the salaries of teachers. Inaction of the present dispensation on their legitimate demand for salary hike not only caused the decay of the service often described as the “noblest profession” of all, but also to demoralize the rank and file of teachers. Small wonder, there are countless stories of teachers going abroad for better pay as caregivers or domestic workers. There are even private school teachers who moved to public schools for higher pay because their salaries are so low they can’t even afford to raise a family.
It is evident from these developments that incoming officials in the country by 2019 should strive hard to improve the conditions of teachers a top priority.
The demand for better and decent wages will persists. What about the calls for the immediate release of their Performance Based Bonus (PBB) as well as exempting teachers from paying the Continuing Professional Development program?
What about the perennial problem on the shortage of classrooms, textbooks and other instructional materials?
The lack of strong and measurable support of the government on the vital needs of teachers should prompt deep reflection. This is something that has to be addressed head on even beyond the end of the National Teachers Month celebration. Now it has become crystal clear to the whole world why a degree holder, board passer at that, public school teacher in a remote village opted to seek greener pasture in Hong Kong as a domestic helper or a factory worker in Taiwan because of the despicable and horrible working and living conditions back home. In such case, the Philippines have been the butt of jokes about being a country of having more degrees, but less common sense! **By Anthony A. Araos
