LIST: 12 teachers that inspire

MANILA, Philippines — In celebration of National Teachers Month, here are 12 educators who show how they uplift the students under their care, and help entire communities overcome obstacles, fight adversities, beat hard times, and conquer challenges.

Chosen from entries received from all over the country, the 12 are finalists of “The Many Faces of the Teacher,” an advocacy campaign of Diwa Learning Systems Inc. and Bato Balani Foundation Inc. that searches for Filipino educators who represent the various ways that teachers contribute to nation building or show people the way to a better future. 

Leading paths out of hardships

One of the more familiar impediments to learning is poverty.  Teachers Roy Biñas Basa, PhD, Master Teacher 1, Negros Occidental High School; Noemi Tanguilan Cabaddu, Instructor III of St. Paul University, Philippines - Tuguegarao City Campus; and Allan Mendoza Delos Reyes, Alternative Learning System (ALS) teacher under Minalin Elementary School are no strangers to sufferings as they were growing up.  

Aware of the difficulties and drawing lessons from their own life experiences, they made it their life mission to help kids experiencing similar struggles they had.

Dr. Basa teaches at the Night Class Department, where he mentors working students.  More than that, he helps them find jobs so they can continue going to school.  He also offers scholarships for them, which covers their miscellaneous fees upon enrolment.  

He also formed an outreach group called 'Ballpen Incorporated', which has since provided scholarship grants and school supplies to deserving countryside learners.  

Cabaddu is Instructor III head of the Community Extension Services at her school. At an early age, Noemi felt that social work is the vocation for her. Since then, she has been devoting her time to her advocacies. 

The cause closest to her heart is child protection. One of the programs she spearheads is the Child Protect program in Apayao under Child Fund. The program provides children access to basic education and quality early full care development. Part of this is working with the community to create safe environments for children. 

Besides child protection, her advocacies also include health, women empowerment, environment, and disaster preparedness. 

Delos Reyes, as an Alternative Learning Teacher, goes around the streets of Minalin, Pampanga to encourage out-of-school youths, young parents, blue collar workers, and even the elderly to continue pursuing a way to a better life through education.  He holds his classes under the shade of trees, inside chapels, in nipa huts, makeshift tents, and even in jails. He doesn’t mind the poor, cramped, and even horrible smelling study stations. He goes up to the farthest corners, even to the swamps, to bring education to people like him, who had once been constrained by poverty. 

He also does not stop there. He conceptualized the 3Es program, which stands for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Employment.  Under the 3Es, he teaches his students technical skills and look for opportunities for employment for them.

Steering communities to overcome challenges

For some teachers, their responsibilities extend to the community around them.

This is the situation where Lodema Dela Cruz Doroteo, Community Teacher, Paadelan E Denomagat – Paaralan Dumagat of Tanay, Rizal; Dominic Rover Ocampo, Master Teacher II, serving as Mobile Teacher, Benito R. Villar Memorial School of Oriental Mindoro; Ruel Eballar Janamjam,Teacher II, Upian Elementary School; Junmerth Cretecio Jorta, Teacher I, Kèupiyanan Tè Balugo of Bukidnon; and Sherlaine Tubat, Master TeacherI, Badjao Floating Elementary School of Isabela City, Basilan find themselves in.

Doroteo is the first in her Dumagat community in Tanay, Rizal to finish college. Instead of pursuing a better life outside her community, she went back and established “Paadelan E Denomagat”, a one-of-a-kind school that gives importance to preserving the Dumagat culture.

Her determination to help her community extends to teaching the Dumagat elders the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. This gave them the opportunity to enter trade in the city and to establish livelihood projects that can augment their household income.

Janamjam uses his influence as a teacher to help uplift the lives of the Matigsalug tribe of Sitio Upian in Davao City.

In weekly meetings with the community elders and parents, Janamjam discusses how they can improve their crop yield. He also helps them deal with issues on mining and land disposal by educating them about their rights.

His most valuable contribution to the community is the establishment of an extension school for grades 7 and 8 students. This encouraged more students to enrol and finish their studies. Today, plans are underway for an independent high school which will be built in a 2-hectare land given to him by the tribal council for the future Upian National High School.

Jorta did not only brave the trails to teach the Matigsalug of Bukidnon, he also helped them address the most basic concern of anyone, which is food sufficiency.

He saw the reality that most of his students go to school with empty stomachs. This urged him to establish a feeding program called “Balugo Pagkaon Sakto,” which has been running for 3 years now. The program, which has gained the support of non-governmental organizations, as well as the local government and the municipal office of the Department of Agriculture, has helped him encourage more students to enrol and curb absenteeism and dropout. Apart from the feeding program, Jorta also led the efforts to acquire resources for other school facilities.

Ocampo brings light to the Mangyans of Mindoro literally and figuratively. His Backpack Alitaptap project gives light to Mangyan communities in two ways. First, he ensures that they will have a chance to get a brighter future by providing them with basic and functional literacy skills. And second, he literally brings light to the communities by providing them with solar lanterns and panels that serve as their light source during classes at night—the only time the Mangyans get to study since they work in the day. 

Tubat serves the Sama Dilaut community, more popularly known to as the Badjao. Her passion in helping the Badjaos, which may be considered as among the most marginalized ethnic group in the country, prompted her to strive for the development of their own Indigenous Peoples Education (IPEd) Framework.  She was part of the team that documented their history, practices, livelihood, political system, faith, food, characters, and other information about how they live. She also led the building of a Badjao replica house in her school to showcase the tribe’s rich culture.  The stilt houses are complete with kitchen utensils, pandan mats, and other traditional relics and artifacts. 

Guiding ascends to peaks of learning

It is common knowledge that our education system is plagued with problems.  But, Bryan Buñing Pajarito, D.Eng., Associate Professor and Research Laboratory Head, University of the Philippines - Diliman; and Michelle Don Rubio, Master Teacher II, Calao Elementary School initiated efforts to provide better avenues of learning for their students.

To train and transform students into the scientists of the future, Dr. Pajarito established Polymer Research Laboratory. His laboratory pioneers cutting-edge research on polymers, creating solutions to a variety of industry problems—while getting recognitions along the way. His dream is for his research laboratory to eventually become a research institute. 

Rubio taught her students how to read by reinventing the teaching and learning environment. With ‘Resort for Learning’, Ms. Rubio created a learning environment that keeps her students focused and interested.

The reading program started in 2014, when she decided to use the school garden as an extension of her classroom. Little by little, the garden was developed into what it is today, an outdoor “mini resort” intended for learning. 

Because of its success, public elementary schools in Prieto-Diaz and Gubat, both in Sorsogon, have already adopted the same project in their schools.

Putting learning on the right track 

Ricardo Jose, PhD, Director of Third World Studies Centre and Professor, University of the Philippines — Diliman; and Aletta Tiangco Yñiguez, PhD, Associate Professor 7, Marine Science Institute, also of University of the Philippines — Diliman, use information they derived from their own studies to make learning come alive in their classrooms.

Dr. Jose is the country’s pre-eminent scholar on World War II in the Philippines and the Asia Pacific. He is considered the leading expert on World War II, as well as in Military History, Diplomatic History, and Japanese History. 

For Dr. Jose, history is not simply an anthology of names, dates, and places. History is a collection of experiences, and a bit of that is what his students get in his class. He makes his discussions more interesting by bringing relics, old photographs, newspapers, and historical memorabilia to animate the past.

Dr. Yñiguez is one of the country’s very few experts on Biological Oceanography. She is at the forefront of the understanding of Harmful Algal Blooms, more widely known as red tide. She and her team of scientists and students are figuring out the triggers for the red tide and the potentials for predicting it.  Their work benefits the fisheries sector, particularly the shellfish industry, by preventing major economic threats and harmful effects on human health.

Currently, she is collaborating with the National Institute of Physics of the University of the Philippines to develop low-cost sensors that can provide real-time data affecting the formation and decline of the harmful algal blooms.

Both professors are sharing their research to stakeholders outside their classrooms.

Tribute to teachers

Four honorees who exemplify how teachers pave the way for better lives will be chosen from this list. They will be announced on October 5, during a gathering of teachers in the country called “A Tribute to Teachers.”