First lady, VP honor teachers amid problems in education

TEACHERS’ PET AND PEEVES | Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte spends World Teachers’ Day with educators, pupils and staff of the Department of Education in Bangued, Abra, on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. (INDAY SARA DUTERTE FACEBOOK PAGE)

BANGUED, Abra, Philippines — First lady Liza Araneta Marcos and Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte acknowledged on Wednesday the role of teachers in building the nation and molding the youth as they led the culminating activity for the National Teachers’ Day celebration here.

“To all the teachers out there, please know that we all recognize your hard work and all the sacrifices you have made to make the art of learning possible,” Marcos told around 3,500 Department of Education (DepEd) teaching and nonteaching personnel at the Abra Sports Complex.

“You have ensured the quality of education for many Filipinos. We did this despite the many challenges that came your way, especially during the recent pandemic. For this, we are all grateful to you,” she said. Marcos, who teaches law at the West Visayas State University in La Paz, Iloilo City, also defended the DepEd’s P710-billion budget for next year, higher than this year’s P633 billion.

“Education is the only inheritance we will leave to our children, and it will not go to waste. So we’re not being frugal about their needs. Maybe this is why the [DepEd’s] budget for next year is big and rightly so,” she said.

According to Duterte, Abra was chosen as the site for the National Teachers’ Day culminating activity since teachers here were in need of “stress debriefing and relaxation” after a magnitude 7 earthquake hit the province and other parts of northern Luzon on July 27.“Hopefully today, you will feel that you are very important to our country because the future of our country is in your hands,” she said.

‘Pride of our nation’

Before the program, she visited the quake-hit Bangued North Elementary School (BNES) where she distributed school and dental supplies as well as food packs.

Speaking to reporters, Duterte acknowledged that teachers should be treated as “the pride of our nation and we have to give importance to their role in nation-building.”

Marites Bisares, 46, a Grade 4 teacher at BNES, said that while she appreciated the recognition given to their profession, she was also hoping they would be given new teaching devices like laptops.

“We are trying our best. We are being resourceful, but I hope we can have new devices because some of them are becoming obsolete,” Bisares told the Inquirer, adding that she bought two laptops using her own money.

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