Teachers in Libmanan Central School in Libmanan, Camarines Sur, were found out collecting money during the recognition day in the same school on March 28, 2005. It appeared that the awardees, naturally through their hard put parents, were to give unspecified amount right after the awarding of pupils to a teacher acting like a guardia civil at the foot of the stairs.

Consequently, Dr. Lucita Año, public schools division superintendent in Camarines Sur, was sought for in the blatant violation of the DepEd Memo No. 8 prohibiting the collection of contributions other than those prescribed by law by the teachers. Año could hardly be contacted. Now the question arises: is the superintendent a party to this irregularity? If she is, she should resign. How can she be not an accomplice to this corrupt design when Año has “command responsibility” to acts and conditions prevailing in all the schools under the division.

First and foremost, teachers, especially in the elementary and secondary levels, lurk in the ambit of surrogatus, substitute parents. They are expected to take care of the young befitting the relationship of a parent to a child. When this is disturbed within the confines of that authority, the disturbance is more the liability of the former than of the latter.

While Año is appointed as a superintendent, she never loses her fundamental character as teacher. As a matter of fact, the wider obligation she has, for by the nature of her office, it transforms her to be the surrogate of surrogates, collectively.

It’s true that recognition of exemplary accomplisments of pupils is a regular motivation to pupils to recognize the value of good work. This is an incentive system that has worked in education to no small measure. The reward from simple ribbons to well-funded scholarships, in most cases, triggers further reinforcement to pupils, awardees or not, to perform better.

And here lies the catch. The award should not be tainted by any mumbo jumbo where the intended beneficiary becomes the victim. The young pupils just became that when they were asked some money when awarded.

They are forced to enter a culture of distrust which is not of their doing but that of their “substitute parents.” Add to that the many more obscurities and mistakes that are to be laid in their later school days, say in college, if ever they reach that point. Presto, education could make Frankensteins of these poor souls. They could become defiant and excellent candidates for the brain drain that has been bleeding and plaguing the country dry of precious human resource since time immemorial.

So that, the work of Año as superintendent of the entire public school system in the province is very critical. She could not merely dismiss in disregard a reporter for doing his job by calling on her to clarify the malfeasance happening at the Libmanan Central School or to a large part the media. This is even contrary to the ongoing concerns of the Manila DepEd to enlist every probable ally to the benefit of education and to support every possible move to improve the lot of school children.

Well, if Año cannot do just that in the bidding of Sec. Florencio Abad, the former has no business to be a superintendent a minute more.