Recognizing a noble profession

Aside from our parents, no other persons have been as instrumental in shaping and developing our intellectual, moral, cultural and social life as our teachers. Indeed we owe our teachers a lot of what we have become especially in our education, literacy and scholastic achievements. Many of us have attained our goals and reached greater heights of success in our chosen careers because of our teachers who persevere in doing their jobs extraordinarily well sometimes even under most trying circumstances. I am a lawyer but I must admit that our country needs teachers more than it needs lawyers. In fact I would not have been a lawyer without teachers. And I am referring here not only to my school teachers but to my parents who were also both teachers.

Most admirable about teachers is that they find more fulfillments in the triumphs of their students. They measure their success not necessarily by their professional achievements and financial rewards but by what their students have attained in all aspects of life. Indeed teachers are the living embodiment of the truism that “success is measured not in what I have become but in what others have become because of me”.

Unfortunately however, most, if not all of us, especially our leaders of today, have neglected, ignored, forgotten and/or have taken our teachers for granted. Such neglect or omission is very evident especially in public school teachers who are remunerated with salaries that are not only much less than what they deserve for their heroic and noble efforts but also inadequate to meet their basic needs and that of their families.

More unfortunate is that since most of these teachers are more dedicated to their profession than concerned with their remuneration, they do not openly or vigorously call attention to their plight. Instead they just silently continue doing their jobs and engage in all sorts of sidelines or sometimes obtain usurious loans to make both ends meet. Others however, human as they are with families to support, are already constrained to painfully abandon their noble undertaking and quietly leave the country just to get menial but well paying jobs as domestic helpers. This exodus of local teachers has been steadily growing and has apparently affected the quality of the teaching profession and consequently of the education in this country.

But fortunately also, there are still some well meaning people and groups in this country who have not failed to recognize and appreciate the self sacrifice of our teachers. Foremost among them is of course the Metrobank Foundation (the Foundation). For the past 25 years, the Foundation has been conducting a “Search for Outstanding Teachers” (The Search) as an expression of its steadfast commitment to promote a culture of excellence in the teaching profession and to improve the quality of education in the country by encouraging exemplary Filipino teachers to become models not only for their peers but for the entire community as well.

The Search aims to recognize our teachers who devote their lives to the development of the youth with exemplary competence and dedication. It seeks out teachers and awards them for their outstanding contributions to the teaching profession, personal integrity and character, instructional competence, and professional and community involvement. Hence The Search has yielded not only pillars of the academe and noted educators but also ordinary teachers who choose to remain in the teaching profession despite all odds and under extremely difficult circumstances. Over the years therefore, the Search has become the most sought after award among educators as it has become the prestigious benchmark of excellence in the teaching profession. Since its launching in 1984 the Search has awarded a total of 286 outstanding teachers all over the country. Each of them was given gold medallion, trophy and cash prize.

 Last February 25, 2010, The Search was awarded by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP) the Grand Anvil during the recently concluded 45th Anvil Awards. This award is presented to a public relations program that indisputably surpasses all programs already rated as “Excellent” in their respective categories. The Search was conferred this highest distinction from among close to 300 entries received by PRSP. Indeed in 1986 just a year after its first batch of outstanding teachers was named, the Search already received its Anvil as Outstanding Institutional Public Relations Program. Then in 2001 it also received an Anvil Award of Excellence in 2001.

In awarding the Grand Anvil to this project, the Anvil Awards Committee headed by its Chairman Dr. Ed Alcaraz highlighted the sustainability exhibited by the Search over the years which is “the kind of public relations” encouraged by the PRSP through the Anvil Awards, considered as the “Oscar” of the public relations industry in the Philippines given to outstanding public relations programs and tools that reflect and promote public interest, good values and genuine service to the community and society. Obviously the Committee realizes that “the process of improving local education is long and arduous”. Thus it has been convinced that it is really a “huge accomplishment” for the Search to have been doing such process for a quarter of a century.

Indeed the Search for Outstanding Teachers of the Metro Bank Foundation has won for Metrobank in 1999, the Asian Banking Award for Social Responsibility, the first time that a Philippine Bank ever won said award. It was also given by the International Association of Business Communicators, the Philippine Gold Quill Award of Merit in 2002 and the Philippine Quill Award of Excellence in 2008. Other awards it received are the Gawad Oscar Florendo given by the Public Relations Officers of the Philippines in 2002, the Agora Awards for Advocacy Maketing by the Philippine Marketing Association in 2003, the Asian CSR Award for Most Outstanding Project in support of Education by the AIM in 2004.

The Metrobank Foundation Inc. is the corporate social responsibility arm of the Metrobank Group chaired by Dr. George S.K.Ty with Aniceto “Chito” Sobrepeña as president. Over the last 31 years, it has promoted a culture of excellence among Filipinos through its various searches not only of outstanding teachers, but also of outstanding soldiers and policemen. It also has a grants program assisting NGOs and government in the fields of education, healthcare and the arts.

Our teachers may have been the unsung and unheralded heroes of yesterday and even up to today but hopefully not anymore tomorrow, thanks to Metrobank Foundation which “celebrates Filipino excellence and presents wellsprings of hope in the future of our nation”.

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