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| FE Hildago looks and speaks like the quintessential public school teacher. Her t's, f's and th's are properly enunciated, she remains unmarried at 69, and is apparently mindful of her manners. When the Inquirer photographer asked her to stand with her arms crossed, the acting education secretary balked, saying that the posture denotes a lack of openness, a bad thing for teachers. Those who've seen President Arroyo scold Hidalgo publicly during a televised Cabinet meeting might say that this Education OIC is too open for her own good. More seasoned politicians would have quickly picked up the nuances of their chief's changing mood and voice pitch, and adjusted their presentations accordingly. But not Hidalgo. Her chief had insisted that it was 1 classroom for every 48 to 50 students, but this former teacher had done the math, had seen the overflow of students every school opening and stuck to her guns: it's one classroom for every 100 students, she repeated. The President, not exactly the soul of tact, sent her off, some say to massage the figures. To the surprise of many, Hidalgo was back before the cameras that same afternoon, candidly answering media's queries, unlike other politicians who might have skulked off until the episode blows over. Yes, Hidalgo told the media, she felt sorry for herself. She would not have felt as bad had media not been around, she added. "When (the President) gets upset, that's how she deals with all of us, no exceptions," she explains. "So initially I didn't feel (the scolding) that much. Only when I realized that it was on television did I feel humiliated. I was thinking to myself, how would children look at me now as a leader in education, how would everybody look at me now?" Much work to do She tried to shrug it off, she added. "Everybody was taking sides and that's not good. There is much work to do, what with classes about to open." In their next encounter, Hidalgo said the President had asked her, "O Fe, you are here. Are you now going to report?" No, she had answered this time. She wasn't ready, she added. Unlike most officials in the Arroyo Cabinet who are political appointees, Hidalgo rose from the ranks. This Philippine Normal College graduate first taught at Batanes, her father's hometown, for three years, and at the Tatalon Elementary School in Quezon City. for the next nine years. "Teaching really is very interesting particularly in Tatalon," she said. "The students there were mainly from the squatters' area, very intelligent but also needy. It was very challenging to teach them." After her teaching stint in Tatalon, Hidalgo was transferred to the central office and became a senior educational researcher. She later became the national textbook coordinator for elementary and high school textbooks in Social Studies. "When we write textbooks then, we get experts from the different disciplines. For example, even if the textbooks were for elementary grades, we'd get not only historians but also sociologists and political scientists. We'd ask them, what must every child learn in this discipline to become a good citizen?" recalled Hidalgo. "For me it was a great experience to see how books were written. And because it is one thing to be a discipline expert and another thing to be a good writer, we'd get writers and language experts as well. We were given one whole year to try out the books in the field. During that year, we'd correct and revise until the books are finalized. This was in the 1970s." Dedication to one's job is something that Hidalgo has absorbed from her family of civil servants. Her mother was a nurse at the Baguio General Hospital who became a public school teacher and later moved to the Commission on Elections. Her father worked at the Department of Public Works and Highways in Batanes, while her brother held the post of assistant postmaster general before retiring from government service. Eve of Edsa In 1972, Hidalgo availed herself of a scholarship program and took up her a masters degree in Curriculum Evaluation and Teacher Education at the Macquire University in Sydney, Australia. Ten years later, the university invited her to return to get a doctorate on Curriculum Development and Instructional Psychology which she finished in 1986. When Hidalgo returned to the Philippines, it was the eve of the first People Power Revolution. She recalled being at the Central Market to buy a few things to send back to Sydney for friends who had helped her. She overhead two vendors talking of how they gave away their wares to the ralliers then massing up at Edsa. "I went back home, gathered all my nephews and nieces at Edsa and distributed biscuits which were all we could bring with us." When things settled down after the Edsa revolution, Hidalgo, who was still part of the bureaucracy since she was only on study leave, reported back to the department. Her first day back was also Education Secretary Lourdes Quisumbing's first day as the new department head. Quisumbing immediately tasked Hidalgo to handle the development of a national framework for values education. "Because of Edsa, people were looking at what values we need to develop. And we had to do it from elementary thru high school." Hidalgo confessed her plans at first were really to go back to Australia and work there permanently. "It was a time when I had to make hard decisions. But after experiencing Edsa and working on values education, I felt I couldn't go. I decided to stay." Eventually, Hidalgo became assistant chief of the Special Education Division and then head of the Human Resource Development office while concurrently serving as officer in charge of the National Learning Resource Center (NLRC). The NLRC was supposed to serve as the center for all training and development programs. Hidalgo hired consultants to design a training program for the more than 1,000 full-fledged public school principals throughout the country. "The basic aim was to decentralize and empower the principals so they can be our core for initiating changes in schools" she said. "But we realized that sometimes, if we look at a situation, it was not the real problem we are solving but only the symptom." Manila calling When Secretary Isidro Cariņo took over the department, he asked Hidalgo to submit a concept for a National Educators Academy of the Philippines which, in a matter of weeks, was approved and established. It was only natural that Hidalgo would become its first executive director. Soon, Bro. Andrew Gonzales replaced Cariņo and he appointed Hidalgo assistant secretary. When Raul Roco assumed the department leadership, he too saw Hidalgo's commitment and appointed her undersecretary for programs and projects, a position she continues to handle even while serving as acting secretary. Hidalgo was in London when a fellow official called and told her they would nominate her to be the current OIC. "I was surprised. I said "No way" and "That's impossible." I didn't know that they put it on paper." A few days after she came home, Hidalgo was summoned to Malacaņang and was informed by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita of her appointment as OIC. "My first impulse was to tell Ermita that I was from Batanes. He said "But you've been there before (Education Secretary) Butch Abad." He said the President had already signed my appointment," Hidalgo said. What's the score? Though she wondered about it, Hidalgo never got around to asking the President why she had not yet appointed a secretary to this sprawling department. ?I do want to be told what's the score. Because when you manage such a big bureaucracy you need to be credible. You need to have complete authority. It's not easy to have that when you are just an OIC." As undersecretary, Hidalgo received P28,000 a month, a piffling considering all the headaches, bad press and presidential tantrums that she puts up with as OIC. She will perhaps get no higher than that. After the unfortunate incident with the President, it is unlikely she would be made permanent education secretary, no matter if various sectors find her acceptable. Antonio Tinio of the the militant Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said of Hidalgo: "She is down-to-earth. Not a politician. She has always been open to dialogs and consultation with rank-and-file teachers. She has also expressed concern over the killing of activist teachers." said Tinio. Hidalgo turns 70 next month. Her career as an educator spans at least 40 years and she has served 10 department secretaries/ministers. Once the President appoints a permanent secretary, Hidalgo said she is thinking of retiring. "That's enough for me," she said. |
| This teacher is no GMA pet ___________________ |
| First posted 09:58am (Mla time) June 18, 2006 By Rowena Carranza-Paraan Inquirer |
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