Lighter packs, brighter classrooms
Lighter packs, brighter classrooms
| Shantelle Misha Mique
“Teaching is more than imparting knowledge; it is inspiring change. Learning is more than absorbing facts; it is acquiring understanding.” – William Arthur Ward.
Stand in the middle of any school hallway and look around: everywhere you turn, you will see students. In fact, from the moment we are brought to life, every single one of us is a student of life, constantly learning new things every day. However, even if you turn around, search through a busy crowd, or even look through specific areas, only a rare few can truly be called teachers.
Many are qualified to teach, but only a few dare to walk through the overwhelming journey of an educator. Despite a challenging educational system, these brave souls continue to step forward for the generation’s future.
Behind every successful graduate is a teacher who taught them what is right and what is true. Inside the four walls of the school building, they serve as second parents–responsible not just for academic instruction, but for the safety, behavior, and well-being of the students.
Little do students realize that every gentle warning, constructive correction, and piece of advice becomes permanently etched into their minds. These lessons are carried not only for personal development, but to guide future generations. Just like what former lawyer Miriam Defensor Santiago said, “These are the people who are molding an entire generation of Filipinos.
The Unseen Burden in the Classroom
For decades, we have seen teachers surviving midnight grading sessions and spending their own salaries on school supplies. But when extraordinary sacrifice becomes a daily expectation, it becomes uninspiring and a structural failure.
Underpaid, overworked, and lacking resources. Some students don’t understand the full picture of their educator’s reality. Despite being tired, they choose to understand and crumple their own problems like a piece of paper, only getting attention when it’s extremely needed.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) reported that 75% of public school teachers are forced to reach into their own pockets to repair broken furniture, paint peeling walls, and purchase basic supplies for their class. When educators are left to personally pay for the rooms where the nation’s youth are built, “heroism” ceases to be an honor. It becomes a quiet, unfair subsidy for institutional neglect.
The Real Reform
The global movement to honor teachers began way back in 1966, when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) established a landmark framework to safeguard an educator’s professional rights and protect their physical and mental well being.
To help immortalize the milestone, UNESCO declared October 5 as World’s Teachers’ Day in 1994, intending for a day to celebrate how teachers are transforming education and also to reflect on the support they need.
By the year 2011, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III deepened this commitment and signed the petition of Proclamation No. 242, which officially makes September 5-October 5 every year a month dedicated to teachers. This was also done to bring the unspoken administrative and financial burdens of educators to the forefront of national policy.
Yet, over the years, these promises of genuine reform faded, leaving overworked teachers to perform gratitude in public while enduring severe underfunding, wages, and crushing workloads in secret.
Beyond the Celebration
Students have developed a habit of giving gifts, planning surprises, and showcasing performances during this time to show appreciation to their respective teachers. The presents aren’t ordinary; they are students’ way of showing gratitude towards their second parents, which can’t be put into words.
Teachers all around the world are literal heroes. Though many fail to see it, teachers help in many ways. Some provide a calculator when a student forgets it for an important test, encourage them, provide remedial help to avoid failing, or even accept late assessments without deductions.
This makes up the education system. It’s not about the tasks assigned or the presentations prepared. It’s about the teachers who explain non-stop so every student in the room would understand.
It’s about the teachers who are behind every person’s failure and success. It’s about the teachers who continue to inspire, protect, and educate.
It’s about the teachers.