DAVAO CITY—The regional Department of Education here recognized 50 teachers and school authorities last week for outstanding work for the school and the community in an annual award running for five years now that was designed after the iconic Philippine eagle.
Davao del Norte accounted for the most numerous outstanding performers among teachers and principals, with 10. It included its component cities, Tagum and Panabo, which have five each, making it have a total number of 20 awardees.
Compostela Valley, now called Davao de Oro, and Davao Oriental, each have seven awardees from their respective school divisions.
But for Davao Oriental, it would have a total of 11 if it would include its component city, Mati, which has four.
Davao City has six awardees, while Digos City of Davao del Sur, has four.
The newly created Davao Occidental province, which has the municipality of Malita as its capital, has two awardees.
The awardees stood out from a field of 20,000 teachers, 10,000 nonteaching personnel, and the management comprising about 2 percent of the DepEd work force in the region.
Evelyn R. Fetalvero, acting regional director, said the top-ranked awardees would receive P5,000, and the second and third ranked performers, would receive P3,000 and P2,000, respectively.
“The more important item here is the recognition and the commendation for promotions for the awardees. It’s the points earned for professional advancement that is significant as a way of recognizing their contribution to the school and the community,” she said.
The awardees were selected in the annual search for the Agila Awards, or the Achievement of Great Instructional Leadership Award.
Former Regional Director Alberto T. Escobarte was credited for conceptualizing the program “to recognize teachers and educational leaders with outstanding accomplishments, instructional competence and teaching effectiveness.”
It said the Agila Award would also recognize “leadership potentials, professional and community involvement, personal qualities and character, and professional competence.”
“All of these comprise nobility,” it added.
Fetalvero said one awardee was able to get one class “which has zero nonreading learner.”
“This award is among the many innovations and improvement the DepEd has been implementing to improve student aptitude and competence, and increase student attendance and attention span,” she added.
“We are also implementing the industry program to match what the industry needs, the reading brigade to increase the reading competence and apprehension of pupils and students,” she added.