ON A FARAWAY MISSION | Junmerth Jorta has overcome tremendous odds there, such as teaching a class of more than a hundred students and leading a house-to-house effort to spread learning during a pandemic year. (Photo courtesy of Metrobank Foundation)
MANILA, Philippines — ”Junmerth Jorta had received several offers to head a school.
But he chose to take a more challenging role — being an educator of a tribe in Bukidnon province, traveling three hours every week and risking life and limb to cross rivers and hills just to report for work.
This Monday, the start of National Teachers’ Month, Jorta, together with three other teachers, and six military and police officers, will receive the Outstanding Filipino of the Year Award conferred by the Metrobank Foundation.
Aniceto Sobrepeña, the foundation’s president, said “outstanding Filipinos (are) marked by their character, competence and compassion, and “their contributions speak of not only caliber, but also of heart and community presence.”
“Their examples, therefore, are a stark contrast to the dark days we’ve experienced in the past couple of years; because they are bringing the much-needed light through their selfless work as purveyors of hope,” he added.
Opportunity
Jorta was recognized for his efforts in supervising more than a hundred elementary pupils from Bukidnon’s Matigsalug tribe for the past six years.
From 2012 to 2015, he served as a regular public school teacher at Kalilangan Central School in the municipality of the same name, until his principal offered him the opportunity to teach at an indigenous peoples (IPs) community in the remote village of Balugo, which can be reached after crossing 17 rivers.
“I knew that if I will accept the challenge, it would be difficult because the school has no electricity, no paved roads, not enough classrooms and chairs,” Jorta said in an interview.
“But my love for education and helping the lost, the last and the least people in our society prevailed,” he said.
The work has not been easy for Jorta, as he admitted. Crossing the rivers, he once got nearly swept away by the current. “Many times I had to swim … just to reach the indigenous community.”
“It’s hard but it’s fulfilling to be an instrument of education to the kids, especially to the IPs,” he said.
Difficult episodes
The teacher recalled initially handling a class of 104 students — a far cry from the average of 40 that he used to lead.
Sometimes he would instruct students at all levels, from kindergarten to Grade 6.
And it also didn’t help that the village had no power supply. “[To think that] I only had time to prepare at night and I had to do everything in that situation,” Jorta said.
But five years since relocating to Balugo, he is now backed by three more teachers. They handle about 130 students in various grades.
Despite growing into the job, there were particularly difficult episodes — like in 2020 when kids were forced to shift to remote learning because of the pandemic.
Junmerth Jorta at the remote village of Balugo in Bukidnon province. (Photo courtesy of Metrobank Foundation
Door to door
At home, the parents could not help the children with their lessons since they lacked education themselves.
“The parents only know how to write their names and put their signatures,” Jorta said.
He decided to tap some high school students in the community to help teach the elementary pupils. Jorta also went door to door in the village to set up the materials for remote learning in each home.
Fortunately, his coteacher Sabrina Ongkiko—a Metrobank Foundation awardee last year—donated P25,000 to Jorta and his coworkers, and the money helped establish a radio-based system of instruction in the community.
“So the kids now only need to tune in from their houses and I am able to reach more students, unlike before when I had to monitor them one by one,” Jorta said.
“I’m really grateful because even though the pandemic happened, God sent us people who could help educate the children,” he added.
Replacement
Jorta said his ultimate goal is to have someone from the tribe eventually become his replacement.
“As a teacher who believes in education for all, my [dream] five to 10 years from now is to have someone I can trust, who would have the same concern for education in the IP community,” he said. “It’s hard to leave the school when you know it can’t stand on its own feet just yet.”
For now, Jorta says he would continue to be “foolish”—as friends describe him in jest, for leaving a comfortable life in exchange for being an IP teacher—because “I see the need to guide our indigenous peoples to dream and become someone they hope to be. If we’re not going to help them, who else will?”
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(The other Metrobank Foundation awardees are teachers Christine Joy Aguila, Mark Nolan Confesor and Leonila Dans; Armed Forces of the Philippines chief nurse Col. Maria Victoria Juan, Col. Stephen Cabanlet, Technical Sergeant Joel Tuganan, Police Executive Master Sgt. Rogelio Rodriguez Jr., Police Capt. Rosalino Panlaqui and Police Col. Lambert Suerte.)
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