TO RECOGNIZE the valuable contribution of teachers who are touted as modern day heroes, the PLDT-Smart Foundation will stage virtually for the third time on Friday, Oct. 15, 2022, its annual Gabay Guro Grand Gathering.
Organizers said the virtual gathering is expected to draw in over 500,000 teachers, who will also have the chance to win exciting prizes. Attendees who will join virtually through the Gabay Guro Super App can win grand prizes such as Chery Tiggo Pro car. There will also be three winners of P500,000 cash prizes among others.
This year’s gathering is anchored on the theme: “The Filipino Teacher: Our Pride, Our Purpose, Our Passion.” The event will be streamed live on Saturday via Gabay Guro’s Facebook page and Youtube Channel starting at 1 p.m.
Just like the first two events that were presented by the Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), with PLDT Home and PLDT-Smart Foundation and powered on the digital landscape, Gabay Guro 2022 is expected to reach out to an even larger audience of teachers across the country and abroad as it showcases a barrage of world-class talents that include Gabay Guro’s longtime assembly of celebrity advocates such as Sharon Cuneta, Regine Velasquez-Alcasid, Martin Nievera, Basil Valdez and Kuh Ledesma.
Other celebrities will also join the gathering to provide musical entertainment to celebrate the teachers.
“Over the last 15 years, all of us working behind Gabay Guro – the core team, the volunteers, the kindhearted artists, our loyal sponsors like the PLDT/Smart, Meralco, MPIC, and the rest of our MVP Group of companies... Everyone has been generously supporting Gabay Guro all these years and we are here together as one to give our teachers the tribute they deserve,” said Gabay Guro chairperson Chaye Cabal-Revilla, who is also the chief finance, risk and sustainability officer of the MPIC. “We continue to support our dear teachers through our many pillars in the transition to the better normal, whether hybrid or face-to-face learning.”
Revilla said the Gabay Guro program is anchored to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations, No. 4, which is about ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities to all.
“This is our pride, purpose and passion,” she said.
Empowering teachers
Since 2007, Gabay Guro has been empowering teachers across the country through its seven core pillars: classroom donations, connectivity and computerization, scholarships, teachers training, livelihood projects, digital innovation, and the teacher’s tribute.
It has built and donated over 55 double classrooms in 21 cities and municipalities nationwide. It has provided 2,174 scholarship grants where 1,767 have graduated, of which 24 percent graduated with honors. There are also 840 passers of the Licensure Exams for Teachers from them. Gabay Guro has 57 partner state universities so far.
It has also distributed more than 600 computers/laptops and printers and internet connectivity to 49 partner schools from 21 municipalities, benefiting 38,587 students, teaching and admin staff. There are also more than 5,000 teachers who were given extra livelihood opportunities and access to micro-financing through Gabay Guro’s assistance.
Over the years, more than 50,000 teachers have trained face-to-face in 90 cities and provinces, and over 1 million teachers have trained digitally through Gabay Guro’s Teachers’ Training’s “Learning Never Stops” digital series.
In the last quarter of 2020, through Gabay Guro’s new digital innovation pillar, the Gabay Guro Super App was launched to empower teachers as they lead the way for digital transformation in education.
Within its first two days of launch, the Gabay Guro Super App had over 100,000 downloads, catapulting it as one of the Top 5 education apps during its introduction phase. Since then, it has stayed popular among users with a steady 4.9 app satisfaction rating.