FLORA, Apayao – Teaching is not her first love, not even her second best choice in college. She wanted to be a nurse but ended up to be a registered pharmacist. But after she tasted the potion of standing in front of students, she found her one true passion, teaching.
Raquel A. Luban (far right in photo), a proud Isneg (Indigenous People) of Poblacion West, Flora, Apayao landed in the Top 10 in the March 2017 Licensure Examinations for Teachers (LET) in the secondary level with a rating of 90.20 percent.
Luban said she never dreamed of becoming a teacher. She passed the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) at UP Los Baños but failed to pursue her Nutrition course there due to monetary consideration. After that, she intended to take up Nursing at Saint Louis University but admission to the program was already closed, thus, settled for the Pharmacy course.
Although Pharmacy is not her first choice, Luban painstakingly hurdled all the tremendous task not only just to finish her course but to have high grades. She recalled that she could have landed in Top 1 in the Pharmacy Licensure Examinations if she took the July examination in 2009 considering her 88.5% rating of the January examination.
Luban, the youngest of seven is a consistent achiever. She is the class valedictorian in her elementary at Flora Central School while the class salutatorian at Flora National High School. She graduated cum laude in her Master’s degree in Pharmacy major in Hospital Pharmacy. She intends to take her Ph.D. while working.
Luban’s passion of teaching came after she was given opportunity to teach at SLU Baguio City where she graduated. She was working as a Manufacturing Quality Assurance Officer in Antipolo when she was called by SLU. And that kindled the fire within her to teach. “My passion to teach came after a year of teaching in my alma mater,” she recalled.
She now prefers to teach than to work in an office or put up her own business as a pharmacist.
Many offers are coming but she prefers to be a lecturer first at Cool Edge Review Center where she reviewed. “After serving as lecturer or teacher in Baguio City perhaps, I will return to Apayao and share whatever knowledge I have.”
Her long term plan is to go back to Apayao in which she owes much as a Provincial Scholar of the Provincial Government of Apayao. She thanked the late Hon. Elias K. Bulut for initiating the program. “Without the scholarship, maybe my college education would not be fruitful. So thank you Apayao for my education through your taxes. Thank you for the leaders for this program,” she stressed.
Asked of her plan, she wanted to go back in the province and share her knowledge. “Apayao will always be my home. Actually, I applied at DepEd (Department of Education) but unluckily failed to be hired. But hopefully, I can be part of the working force of Dep Ed soon.”
She encouraged the IPs to value education and excel wherever they are in whatever field. “I encouraged my co-IPs (Isnegs) to be educated in its highest form in order to remove any negative thoughts about us,” she underscored.
In her quest for excellence, Luban is guided by the principle of hard work. “Am-amin nga banbanag ket dapat pagrigatan. No pagrigatam, nasamssam-it met lang (In all things, we must employ hard works. It is indeed sweeter if we work hard for what we get),” she reminisced.
The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and the Board for Professional Teachers (BPT) announced that 5,600 elementary teachers out of 53,915 examinees or 10.39% and 18,482 secondary teachers out of 72,584 examinees or 25.46% successfully passed the Licensure Examination for Teachers given last March 26, 2017 in 18 testing centers all over the Philippines. Statistics show that the latest number of exam passers is the lowest in the history of LET.
By: GERRIAHZON S. SEBASTIAN
