Every week, we want to give you a glimpse of what our I Teach Peace Champions from our Kapatiran Schools and Communities face as teachers in the middle of a pandemic. We hope that you find inspiration in these teachers’ resilience. 

“Sana mawala na agad ang COVID-19 kasi bawat aspeto ng buhay ng tao ay may epekto ito. Sana lang ang manatiling matatag ang lahat at hindi makalimot sa pagdarasal. Para naman sa edukasyon sa aming lugar, sana po talaga walang batang mapag-iwanan sa new normal na ito.” (“I hope that COVID-19 goes away because everyone’s life is affected by it. I hope that we remain strong and we don’t forget to pray. I hope that no child will be left behind in this new normal.”)

This is the wish of Teacher Jamalia Saruang, from Camp Bagong Amai Pakpak Elementary School (CBAPES) in Marawi. With the transition to distance learning, many teachers like her find themselves navigating an unchartered territory and hoping for the best case scenario to happen: for COVID-19 to end.

The threat to the teachers’ health and safety isn’t the only challenge, the country’s online distance learning modality is faced with other obstacles: limited to no internet connection, lack of resources such as printers and bond papers used to produce the students’ modules, and a conducive learning environment for children.

While the role of parents is just as important, schools in Mindanao like CBAPES are also doing its best to make up for the lack. Safety precautions are in place to protect the teachers as they produce and distribute modules. The school set up orientations to educate parents on how to use the modules and how to support their children.

“Hindi po lahat ng mga mag-aaral namin ay mayroong cellphone. Pero po, parang ang hirap po kasi magturo na hindi mo kaharap ang mga bata. Bilang isang guro, kung kaharap po namin ang mga mag-aaral ay mas nasusubaybayan po namin sila,” shares Teacher Jamalia. (“Not all students have phones. But, it can be difficult to teach kids if you’re not with them. As a teacher, we guide students better if we’re with them.”)

For Teacher Jamalia, the teachers can gauge a student’s learning ability better when it is in a classroom setup. This is important to ensure that the children improve as they progress in school. But in the middle of a pandemic, a peace champion like her has to make the most out of the situation. So, she does.

She hopes that the country will one day have free Wi-Fi everywhere, for every student to have their own gadget for learning, and for all teachers to be equipped with free laptops. Though she thinks, this may seem like a far-fetched dream.

So, she settles for what she knows can be achieved at this time: enough supplies of bond papers for printing their modules and tools to help them in creating their video lectures — a simple ask indeed, but one that may change the course of our future generation.

CBAPES is one of TPBPM’s Kapatiran Schools that is part of our ongoing Peace Gifts Project which aims to provide schools with equipment and materials for printing modules such as printer and copier, printer ink, and bond papers. For those who wish to donate, please send your donations to:

Bank of the Philippine Islands
Teach Peace Build Peace Movement Inc.
Account Number: 9601000528
Swift Code: BOPIPHMM

Be part of our Kapatiran Support Circle. And together as brothers and sisters, we can help our peace hero children.