ATTENTION: DepEd Nueva Vizcaya

This one, you're not going to believe!

I went home to my village in the highlands two days ago to attend a wedding of a cousin and I had a chance to talk to a former teacher of mine back in my elementary days. She is not really the talking personality but I was surprised that she volunteered so many information that night. Let's call her Teacher A.

She has been in the profession since I was three. That's two decades and 7 years ago. But never in her teaching years have I ever seen her so distraught and frustrated about her work or a co-teacher. It's not that they can't get along. It's that this other teacher (let's call her Teacher B) is so incredibly 'strange' that my teacher thinks she doesn't belong in a classroom and these, among others are her reasons:

Professionalism:
1. Teacher B seldom teaches her classes.
2. She came with a baby grandchild that she babysits in her classroom and so her classroom looks like your typical laundry room with wet baby things hanging on a string tied from one end of the room to the other. (The village is 6-8 hours hike away from the nearest road. During dry season, double tired jeeps, 4x4 trucks, brave drivers can make their way up into this village). This teacher came somewhere from one of our neighboring provinces.)
3. She also has a bed in her classroom. She apparently removes this whenever a delegation comes to do evaluation.
4. During her first year in the school, she used to travel to the village on a Monday and come down to the lowlands on a Thursday or Friday so she usually taught ( I mean entered her classroom) 2-3 days a week, if at all. Thankfully, this does not happen too often nowadays, but that don't really matter if she spends class time doing what follows.
5. During class hours, one can usually catch her with a few girls either scratching her scalp for dandruff or trying to pick louse or something while the rest of the pupils are producing all kinds of chaos and riot.
6. When Teacher A told her that not one third grader placed in any of the inter-school academic competitions ever since Teacher B came to that school, she apparently retorted that it's probably because Kalanguyas are "ngangngang" (stupid, idiots, ignorant, unvicilized, etc.). I was in that school from '82-'88. During my time, we compete with confidence in all scholastic events, i.e. spelling bees, science fair, balagtasan, oratorical contests, Choirs, etc.) and I had won a few contests myself. Recently, some of my cousins and nephews/nieces had won in the Damath, etc. competitions. I don't care being branded as an idiot cuz I know my worth, but Good Grief, this 'ngangngang' accusation is an affront to the whole Kalanguya people.

Strangeness:
7. She has three goats that eat and destroy plants around the school (e.g. hibiscus, camote that the students planted in their gardens, etc.). When a co-teacher rebuked her, she said that it's practical teaching. It's teaching the students how to 'prune' their plants. She even derided the other teacher saying what an ignoramus she is. When the other teacher told her that letting the goats 'prune' the plants is not the way to teach children how to do pruning, but that she should take the children to the gardens and show them, she retorted, "Well, you're from this village! So where is your fields to take the children to?"
8. She farmed a few square meters of the school lot adjacent to the teacher's cottage. The problem is she uses classroom time cultivating this personal garden of hers.
9. She dries her underwear (yes, as in panty) by slipping it into her head, making it like some sort of headdress or something while hiking down to town or up the village. (I heard about this strange practice many times before I crossed path with her along a trail going to the village, and saw it for myself. I don't know if this is normal from where she came from.)

Others:
9. From a reliable source, I heard that Teacher B was put in the school by the local DepEd district supervisor as a form of revenge to the head teacher of the school. He was heard saying, "Kitaen ta man no ania ti maaramid na ni Mr. So&so no ma-under kenkuana ni Teacher B!" (Let's see what Mr. So&So can do with Teacher B!) It doesn't take a genius to figure out from this statement alone that Teacher B has been a walking trouble even before her unfortunate appearance in the portals of my elementary school.
10. People and children in this particular barangay do not have the respect due for a school teacher. They could not understand what in the world is wrong with her that is why they just call her names (on her back) like "napihpihitaan (lit. someone with 2 pcs of 10 cents, meaning a mental case; but for goodness sake, she's has the rank of Master Teacher 2 or something), adda korkorang na." Because of her strange ways and reasoning, she became a joke in the village. The thing is, she has become aware of this for a few years now and she seems to be doing even more strange, unprofessional things just to spite her Co-teachers and the villagers.

What has and not been done:
1. Teacher A and her co-teachers reported these unprofessional and unethical practices to the District supervisor but the DepEd district office boss apparently said that the school has not shown any evidence to substantiate these reports. The teachers of the school would prefer the office to send a surprise investigating team to evaluate this 'strange phenomenon." :) The other teachers would like the bosses to catch Teacher B redhanded themselves but until now, no such team or investigation has been sent.
2. A few months after Teacher B came to the school, the PTCA tried to file a petition to the DepEd District Office to transfer Teacher B from their school but other teachers argued to give her a few months and see if she'll change her ways. That was 5 years ago.

During one commencement exercise, one of my first cousins took home the first-honor medal. When I told her how proud I am of her, she said, "First honor nga, ________ naman." The blank there stands for the Surname of Teacher B. I was of course intrigued but I just shrugged and ignored it. Now that I had a talk with Teacher A, I recalled that incident and asked myself, "Why would a third grader say that?"

I believe that this should be stopped right now. She is violating the right of the children to quality education. Her professional ethics is questionable, even her mental judgment.

I intend to write an email to the DepEd Nueva Vizcaya when I am able to get more facts concerning this.