KALINGA, March 6, 2019 – Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones challenged the teachers of the Schools Division Offices of Kalinga and Tabuk City to preserve their integrity to keep the trust of their learners.

She shared this during her visit on February 28 when she also emphasized on the impact of teaching, saying that learners will always believe in what their teachers tell them and will behave the way their teachers behave.

“The message is that the learners still trust us as grown-ups—whatever we do and whatever we don’t do—to take care of them and their future,” the Secretary said.

“There is always hope for them and I hope that as teachers, we continue and we retain that trust that our learners lay in us,” she added. “There is something special about the teacher which makes a child trust in him. Teachers are always respected.”

She likewise weighed in on the ongoing debate on the reduction of subjects in the social sciences to give way to the addition of subjects in trigonometry, chemistry, and engineering to be able to catch up with international standards. She maintained her stand as Secretary of Education to strike a balance between the so-called hard and soft sciences.

“When will we get our soul? What will make us distinct or unique from other countries? We cannot get our soul from mathematics. We get our soul from music, dances, ethics, stories of great and brave heroic men and women, and this is when we know that we are Filipinos,” Briones underscored.

“Only when we know that we are Cordillerans, we are from Kalinga, because this is our identity, this is our song, even if we know mathematics and chemistry,” she continued.

Briones visited the two schools division offices during the Cordillera Administrative Region Athletic Association (CARAA) Meet 2019 where she delivered the keynote address.

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By: Merlyne I. Gumatay