32-year-old mom finally passes teacher licensure exam after 14 attempts

TACLOBAN CITY — After 14 tries, a 32-year-old woman finally passed the Licensure Examinations for Teachers (LET).

Richelle Ann Gonzales scored 76.80 percent, a little over the passing rate of 75 percent.

Gonzales, a mother to six children, was elated that after years of waiting and even frustrations, she can now call herself a licensed teacher.

“I was doing some laundry work when a cousin of mine broke the news that I finally passed the exams. At first, I did not believe her but later on, was able to verify it as a sister-in-law of mine posted it on her social media account,” she said.

Gonzales, who hails from a remote village of Sangay, Palapag town in Northern Samar, took her first exam in 2010, the year she graduated from the University in Eastern Philippines in Catarman, Northern Samar.

Last March 11, the Philippine Professional Commission released the results of the LET held last January of this year.

Gonzales, whose parents were coconut farmers, was the second eldest from a brood of eight.

Despite their poverty, she wanted to finish her studies and become a teacher.

“I even had to sell used clothings and peddle bets on lotto just to earn money for my studies,” she said.

When she was a child, Gonzales dreamt of becoming a teacher and even played as a teacher to her younger siblings and children in their village.

“It’s nice to impart knowledge to others and that they are happy to learn something new from me,” she said.

Despite several setbacks, Gonzales never surrendered and continued to take the teachers’ examination until she passed.

“My parents and my siblings and my own family motivated me to take the examination again and again until I could pass it. They never gave up on me. Of course, there were times that I’d like to give up. In fact, there were times that I isolated myself from my classmates who are now teachers,” she said.

“But God is so good that finally, after 11 years and 14 times of trying, and fervent prayer and novena, I was able to pass the exams. I cried so much. I could not believe it at first,” she said.

Gonzales said that she would like to teach at the Sumoroy Agro-Industrial School, located at the town proper of Palapag where she finished her high school.

She was optimistic that aside from helping her parents and her siblings, she could also help her husband, Michael, who works as a laborer, and their six children.

“Be confident in your own abilities and don’t give up. Don’t be ashamed if you have failures. Always trust papa God,” she said, when asked what she could advise to others who have also suffered similar setbacks in life.

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