‘THE CHILDREN ARE MY INSPIRATION’ | Math teacher Jerwin Valencia of Dingras National High School in Ilocos Norte is one of 11 Southeast Asian educators who will receive this year’s Princess Maha Chakri Award in October in Bangkok. (Photo from the Department of Education)
MANILA, Philippines — Being a schoolteacher for almost 10 years, Jerwin Valencia, 32, is certainly familiar with the difficulties and challenges in education.
But he said the experience has also taught him that “if you have it in your mind that what you’re doing is to help the children, …you will power through those problems.”
The mathematics teacher from Dingras National High School in Ilocos Norte will be conferred the Princess Maha Chakri Award in Bangkok, Thailand, on Oct. 17.
The biennial award, which comes with a cash prize of $10,000, was established in honor of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn for her accomplishments in Thailand’s education sector. A foundation named after her confers the award on highly dedicated teachers in Southeast Asia.
Apart from teaching, Valencia was cited for leading various charity projects and integrating his advocacies for a sustainable community into teaching.
Subject’s relevance
According to the Department of Education, he is the country’s fifth recipient of the prestigious award.
“The children themselves are my inspiration. Every time I see them on the streets, they say ‘Sir, take care!’” Valencia said in an interview on Sunday.
Among his many inspired initiatives is “Project Math (Make A Tremendous Help),” aimed at familiarizing children with mathematics by finding that subject’s relevance in their daily lives.
These children, after all, do not always enjoy a carefree childhood. They are also tasked with household chores and other mundane duties to their families.
The project, which Valencia introduced in 2018, provides a checklist of household activities that students must accomplish as part of their performance tasks in learning.
“They are asked to make planter boxes of different shapes and sizes using trash like used bottles and containers,” he said, adding that the project is also environmentally friendly.
Because of the project, Valencia said he would get feedback from parents who would wonder aloud to their kids why they are able to better assist them at home.
“When I see them in school or in the streets they would thank me and that’s when I know that the project somehow made a great impact on them,” he said.
Charity work
Valencia, in partnership with the math department in his school, also introduced Project Wag Mathakot, which aims to familiarize students with the skills in that subject through early tutorials and other such “enhancement” activities.
At the start of the pandemic, Valencia also conceptualized an idea he called “Sagut-Ayat Para Iti Arapaap” (Gift of Love for a Dream), giving children in his village ice cream to help boost their spirits during the lockdown period.
The project soon evolved into a bigger charity endeavor as he collected funds to distribute school supplies, grocery items, and even arts and craft materials to more than a hundred students in his community.
Apart from attending to the needs of the youth in his community, Valencia also developed other projects to help the less fortunate residents there.
He called one such project “Agbalaygi” — after “balay,” the Ilocano word for home — to help three neighbors who were senior citizens build simple homes early during the pandemic.
“I still remember that day, March 21, when I thought that instead of celebrating my birthday, why not help my neighbors instead because their house made of bamboo was already about to fall,” Valencia said.
He accumulated a total of P75,000 from donations and through the help of other community members, they were able to build three concrete houses.
“After a few years, there are already 32 households that benefit from the Agbalaygi project all around the [Ilocos] region. Some of them were fire or disaster victims and although it’s not a complete house, the goal is to build concrete foundations for their homes,” he said.
‘Inspire the people’
Valencia dedicates the recognition due him to his family, school, students, and individuals and organizations like the Boy Scouts of the Philippines and the International Professional Association of Dingras who helped make his charity work possible.
He said the Princess Maha Chakri Award “will motivate me to keep on helping [my community] because even though I don’t have that huge amount of money, what’s important is my intention to help and inspire the people.”