Pass your paper finished or unfinished

Classes have begun and the schools are once again packed with students hopeful to have a better future. Their parents look forward to every year of success as their children go through every rung in the educational ladder.

We hope with them. Acknowledging that it is to them that we surrender the tomorrows of our age.

We pray for the teachers being the surrogates who help cultivate the minds and character of the different generations that pass through them. We are with them in their desire to provide the best quality of instruction that they can give. We laud them for the sacrifice that goes with their noble vocation. I would like to believe that as the basic default of every teacher is to serve as we know the pittance they receive every month does not compensate for the volume of work they do for every class. Some may argue that the teacher’s pay has increased, I tend to look at the volume of work that a Filipino teacher has in her hands. Unlike her counterparts in other developed countries where they have research assistants and staff to help in some of the needed administrative requirements, that add to the quagmire of paper work. Reality check, we are still in the third world so we have to bank on that intrinsic resilience that comes handy to all of us.

With the volume of tasks that occupy the guro, it is no wonder why some teachers no longer get married. Their occupation already mimics that of parenthood and if they did not have a personal relationship in their sleeve prior to embarking on the exercise of their profession, it would be hard for them to find a mate. Unless they are to discover a viable love interest at work or are purposive about their goals to have their own family, single teachers may end up married to their profession.

Again, this is a choice we are grateful for, as they opt to focus on our children in school and I wish them happiness, unsurpassed.

Teachers struggle with balancing their work with life.  The very reason they give in to working abroad. When confronted with better opportunities for their families, they have to make hard choices. I appreciate the struggles they have in making the decision.  To struggle means it was hard for them to let go of the young minds they worked with and in that we can see their heart.

I am bewildered though by the added load of teaching students in the barangays during weekends.  Teachers render remedial classes to students who I am told are already in their secondary levels and still do not know how to read. How did they get there?

Some of the teachers I have spoken to shared that it is because of the “no one is left behind” principle that I think was erroneously understood. No one is left behind for me means that all must be given the opportunity to learn. No one should be deprived of quality education.  Not that everyone should pass even if the child still has not learned anything. It will only add pressure to the child to be moved up and be actually left behind in terms of learning among his or her classmates as he or she will need a little more to comprehend the higher lessons that are thrown their way. That is leaving this pupil behind!  It is not an easy case of passing the paper, finished or unfinished. The student will actually be described instead as “being so behind!” if he or she is promoted undeservingly. This is not being kind.

Students are not to be treated like something unwanted that you want to get off your hair, and so you pass it on to the next taker, who continues to pass the kid on until someone responsible takes pains to give remedial classes.

Bur remedies must be given in the earlier years when the children’s minds are more pliable.  Perhaps when what you to have mainly deal with is the shyness or resentment to replace their computer games with education. Hmmm, this will indeed take a lot of school and home guidance.

So yes, the teachers’ hands are full. And parents have to be more understanding and reasonable in accepting why their children have to retake and relearn at times. They have to look at the better picture of the kind of tomorrow they would like their children to have. Coupled with learning is also the discipline that the school has to implement. Policies that then were our guide to being better citizens like wearing our uniforms properly, not cutting classes, sporting neat haircuts and the like. These are as simple as making our beds in the morning or ensuring that our nails are clean and that we wash our hands.  Life lessons that prepare us for life indeed.

So this year, I wish everyone the best. Hopefully when DepEd reviews the educational system once again, they will look into the quality of learning and the character development they want to see the students demonstrate in the future.  This, without discounting the quality of life the maestra or maestro should also have as they nurture learning and learn as well.