From classroom mom to DepEd secretary

After Education Secretary Jesli Lapus moved to the Department of Trade and Industry, the big question raised in academic circles was who would take his place — even during the three months prior to the assumption to office of the new president? Well, his successor, Dr. Mona Valisno, is not in Jesli’s shoes because she is a close friend of President Macapagal-Arroyo. She has been in academe for a long time, headed important offices, is quite happy with her appointment, made, in her own words, “at the end of the tunnel,” and “happy to relinquish the post to whoever the new president will choose.” She adds: “Education is non-partisan. Whatever the new administration wants done, we’re moving in the right direction.”

 The Department of Education plays a very major role in the molding of minds, attitudes, capacities and skills to make every citizen a productive member of society; in other words, to provide citizens with good quality education. This school year, there are 23.4 million students in the public and private elementary and high school levels, and 2.4 million students in state and private colleges. Teaching these students is the responsibility of 600,000 teachers, and another 10,000 newly accepted teachers. The teaching is done in 429,390 schoolrooms; 107,000 of them were constructed during the seven years of the Arroyo administration, and ongoing, hopefully in time for the June school opening are 3,000 more classrooms.

 The department’s budget for this year is P235.2 billion; this will take care of needs also of the Commission on Higher Education, TESDA, the Department of Science’s training institute, and National Defense College. This will cover as well the salaries of government teachers and 50,000 non-teaching personnel (on the administration side, including salaries of the education secretary, undersecretaries and technical and clerical and janitorial staff).

Contrary to charges of Philippine education having declined, Dr. Valisno says the survival rate among elementary and high school students have increased, and the drop-out rate decreased. “Our goal is to have 100 percent zero drop-out rate,” said Valisno, but added that this may be possible if the poverty situation in the country is averted.

Without a doubt Valisno is prepared for the job of education secretary. She has a Ph.D degree from the University of Toronto in Canada as a Colombo Plan scholar. She completed post-doctoral work in the same university as a visiting scholar. She has a master’s degree from the University of the Philippines and a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the Philippine Normal College.

Her work with government began with her being a classroom teacher. She moved upwards, to bureau director for higher education. then to executive director of the National Educational Testing and Research Center, then to commissioner in the Commission on Higher Education, then to undersecretary/presidential adviser for education in the Office of the President and in DepEd.           

 Valisno’s educational expertise in measurement and evaluation aimed at measuring achievement levels and expanding the opportunity for dropouts and out-of-school youth to acquire formal education, led to the implementation of major breakthroughs in education. These are the Accreditation and Equivalency Program, which has enabled one million dropout students to re-enter the formal educational system; the expanded Tertiary Educational Evaluation and Accreditation Program, which gives academic credits to learning acquired outside the formal educational system; the establishment of the National Educational Testing and Research Center, the National College Entrance Examination, and the Philippine Main Education Highway.

Asked about good things that former Secretary Lapus did for the department, Valisno said it’s difficult identifying heroes, as one secretary after another tries his/her best to continue the programs their predecessors had initiated.  

She did acknowledge as a good thing the launching by Lapus of the Adopt-A-School program. Lapus successfully urged 44,619 public elementary and high schools to join Brigada Eskwela. Valisno says DepEd today has launched the implementation phase of Brigada Eskwela Plus which gathers parents, teachers, employees local government units, alumni associations and civic organizations to get involved in children’s education. These organizations repair school furniture, classrooms clean school grounds in time for school opening. They also urge parents to bring back their children to school.

But Secretary Valisno does consider teachers as heroes, citing their perseverance and dedication as monitors in the automated elections. She said President Macapagal-Arroyo will be giving out awards to teachers who did “heroic acts” while doing their job as Board of Election inspectors. Also deserving recognition are teachers who are participating in the population census-taking activity of the National Statistics Office. The teachers are paid little compared to the hard field work they do, knocking at doors which are not opened, and sometimes being chased by dogs in unfriendly neighborhoods. 

Teachers in public schools are paid higher than in many private schools, some getting P14,000 a month in public schools, others below P10,000 in private schools. Valisno says teachers’ salaries will eventually improve in time. But right now, they are not allowed to sell umbrellas or panties or telas for extra money.

 The former school teacher said she will definitely involve herself with educational matters when the new secretary is appointed.

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Dinners at the Makati home of industrialist Don Julio Sy, Sr. and his wife Aning are very enjoyable, not simply for the feast of Chinese, Korean or Filipino dishes Aning serves, but also for the concerts staged by choral groups and recitals of their grandchildren. Last May 23 the performing pianists at a mid-summer recital called “Simply Us!” were Maia, 8, and her brother Louie, 15, children of Jonathan and Lily Sy, who are residents of Bacolod City.

Maia was simply fascinating, as she announced with flair and confidence the pieces she was going to play. And she played them with such showmanship (she had several changes of costumes too) one predicts she could be another Cecile Licad.  She played baroque, classical and romantic pieces. Maia’s teacher, Bernice Ching, said Maia has “great potential” to be an excellent concert pianist. What’s very important is Maia’s serious interest in piano. Her mother Lily said Maia practices consistently, and during this summer’s break, while she was vacationing in her grandparents’ home, she wanted teacher Bernice to give her lessons three times a week.

Noted as well was Maia’s brother Louie’s performance of among others Monty Norman’s Dr. No — James Bond theme, Graham Russell’s American pop themes “All Out of Love,” “It’s Time to Say Goodbye,” and “Hey Jude,” by Paul McCartney and a couple of classical pieces. Louie is a mature player, and head and shoulders above his classmates at the St. John Institute of Bacolod when it comes to music.

Listening in the wings were cousins Germaine Sy, a med tech student; Karina and Kyle Krebs, and Luke Limkaichong, son of Neg. Or. Rep. Josie Sy Limkaichong — all of whom had their own singing and piano performances in the Sy saloon. Also lending moral support to the performers were their aunt Jeanne Sy Krebs, herself a piano student of Bernice.

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My e-mail:dominimt2000@yahoo.com