IT WASN'T so long ago when cultural expectations on women changed. They were expected to just stay at home and manage the needs of the family while men were expected to work and provide financial and other resources. They were labeled as fragile so they cannot handle people and circumstances.
Those were the days.
Now, we see women looked up to by many as strong and powerful leaders. Who would ever forget Corazon Aquino, our first female president who led the 1986 People Power Revolution? Who would not know Tsai Ing-wen, the current and first female president of Taiwan known for defending Taiwan’s sovereignty against China?
Women have been regarded now as strong and independent. And in the Department of Education (DepEd), it is now led again by a female brilliant leader, who, for the first time, led the education government sector for six straight years.
DepEd has strong leaders too from undersecretaries to directors to superintendents to school heads to teachers to non-teaching personnel. They have led the Department greatly and the organization has produced positive changes and great impact.
Let us start with Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones who showed prowess and compassion from the start. She started with the launching of the senior high school (SHS) nationwide. Although the preparations, with intricate and tough decisions, started before her stint, the reality of it all started as soon as she stepped in.
It wasn’t easy with many who doubted and questioned the curriculum’s relevance and teachers’ competence. But all these are part of learnings in the past. DepEd has proven, through her leadership, the many benefits of the SHS curriculum adding to skills development of learners.
Then came the emergence of a new normal brought about by the Covid pandemic. DepEd has to plan and decide how to continue education despite the fear of each one and the strict health protocols. Again, last year was a learning journey, and DepEd has to continue. The school year (SY) 2020-2021 ended, and the opening of classes for SY 2021-2022 will commence on September 13, 2021.
With critics sprouting from social media trolls to people who refuse to understand the importance of education, Sec. Briones, whose wit grew more as she ages, remains strong-willed and principled.
Another strong woman in education is DepEd-Davao Region Assistant Regional Director (ARD) Maria Ines Cansona Asuncion. People regard her as strict by establishing standards, a method deemed to be very important for an organization to thrive.
She leads compassionately looking at what benefits both the organization and the human resource and recognizing the potential of personnel by giving them opportunities to excel more.
She is so concerned to achieve herd immunity by helping what could be done to have all DepEd members, even including their families, get vaccinated. Her values embedded in her from her youth is like a virus infecting each one to cultivate the same.
She is a leader who did not rise to be one overnight but is molded through time and experiences.
Another such strong woman in education is Evelyn Enoc Magno, the school principal of Davao City National High School, the most populated school in the city. Everyone sees her as very strict, but they all agree that she is equally so compassionate especially if they get the chance to know her more.
This is the reason why wherever she goes, the school she handles achieve total transformation. She is strong in collaboration and partnership where she gets big projects for the school from almost the same partner organizations. This is an indicator that they have seen how she manages the school for the benefit of the learners and teachers.
In fact, a college graduate with whom I had a casual talk mentioned not her favorite teacher but her favorite principal she called Ma'am Magno. Isn’t it amazing? Mostly, we hear students talking about their favorite teacher. This time, she talked about her principal describing her as strict but very caring and approachable.
Of course, I will include in the list of strong women in education the one who made me what I am today. My mother, Ursula Cinco Valderrama, the former Chief of Secondary Education in the region, when the divisions are not yet combined as one.
She retired 15 years ago, but DepEd people, who knew her, always remember her as someone strong, smart, and fluent. She is fondly called Ma’am Sol and they always recall how she enunciates English words so clearly and passionately, a skill only 50 percent I inherited from her.
She was strict but she set standards so well, just as how she does it at home.
These power women of education – Sec. Briones, ARD Asuncion, Dr. Magno, and Dr. Valderrama – are symbols of women of the present. They still manage their homes, but they are revelations of great leadership outside their homes.