Australian Envoy as Teacher for a Day in PH

Taking a day off from his usual diplomatic duties, Australian Ambassador Steven Robinson on Thursday volunteered to teach some 50 Filipino high school students at the Navotas National High School in celebration of the National Teacher’s Month in the Philippines.

The envoy, who himself was a high school teacher early in his career, highlighted the importance of access to education and how Australia supports the Philippine government’s initiatives on this aspect.

“For Australia, we are committed to education and so we’ve been doing so much with the Department of Education to help education in the Philippines because it is the foundation of the future,” he told reporters in an interview.

Australia runs a range of programs in the Philippines, the majority of which are focused on education. Last year, it allocated about USD85 million in development assistance to the country.

“We got 85 million-dollar worth of assistance. The majority of them is focused on education because we are trying to upgrade the skills of the teachers in the Philippines so that the quality of education continues to rise,” he noted.

During the class, he taught 53 grade 10 learners about cultural diversity and gave a history lesson on Philippine-Australia relationship.

“The relationship between our two countries began well before our alliance in World War II and the formal commencement of our diplomatic relations in 1946. In fact, the first migrant Filipinos, known as ‘the Manila Men’ arrived in Australia in the late 1800s to work in the pearling industry,” he told the students.

“To this day, our relationship continues to flourish across a wide range of areas — political and security, trade and economic, development cooperation, cultural and people-to-people links,” he added.

The Teach for a Day is an annual event organized by the Teach for the Philippines (TFP), a non-government organization working to provide Filipino children with access to quality education.

It engages prominent personalities to share their knowledge and experience with public school students. Robinson is the first envoy to join the activity. (PNA)