PBBM's 3rd SONA delights teachers

LAOAG CITY – Public school teachers from the Ilocos region were delighted with the announcement by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. during his 3rd State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, on extending more support to the education sector.

Cherry Joy Garma, a senior education program specialist at the Department of Education in Vigan City, said she appreciates "the thorough reform on education that the President has laid down during his State of the Nation Address."

"I agree that teachers should be empowered and capacitated to deliver the quality education that the children need to be self-sufficient citizens in our country. The additional benefits for our teachers will help them uplift their lives so that they will not think of going abroad to serve the other nation for a greener pasture," she said.

Garma said that as a mother of two, the support given to the teachers by removing administrative work as among their tasks and instead creating additional administrative positions to hire more staff, greatly benefits the learners because the teachers can now focus on their main job.

"Thank you, Mr. President, for listening. This is one of the best SONA I ever heard," said Aileen Rambaud, school principal of the Salanap Elementary School in Pinili town.

Rambaud, along with fellow education workers both from the academe and non-DepEd sector, took a break from the ongoing regional development, validation, and finalization of lesson scripts under the national reading program just to listen to the President's SONA.

The group, which is in Paoay, Ilocos Norte, is on its 12th day of formulating the lesson scripts. In two more days, it is scheduled to come up with its output for Grade 1 learners in Ilokano-speaking provinces.

"Through these quality-assured lesson scripts, our Grade 1 teachers will no longer be hard up to prepare their lesson plans. All they need to do is to deliver starting on the July 29 opening of classes," she said, citing the rigorous work of lesson planning that teachers have to sacrifice even after office hours for the welfare of learners.

Another school principal, Rolen Oracion of the Eladio V. Barangay Memorial Elementary School in San Nicolas town, dubbed as "truly inspiring" when the President said in this SONA that "the quality of education rests on the quality of our teachers."

"The provision of teaching allowance will be of help, enabling our teachers not to solicit or shell out from their own pockets for the purchase of additional teaching materials," she said.

Agness Bagcal, a public school teacher at the Ilocos Norte College of Arts and Trades, said people continue to wait for the major impact of these education sector reforms.

Marcos, in his SONA, pledged to build and upgrade schools and work on uplifting and upskilling teachers, whose competence and trademark Filipino patience, determination, and compassion are at the core of national learning recovery.

He said more employees would be hired in the Department of Education to assist teachers in the administrative work so that teachers no longer need to multi-task for various activities assigned to them even on weekends and on holidays. (PNA)