Dr. Sharon R. Gungon

International Luminary Award in Teaching

New Washington Elementary School,

Philippines

Master Teacher III

Personal Highlights:

She was nominated and declared an awardee in various local and regional awards sponsored by government agencies.
Most recently, she was recognized by the Civil Service Commission Regional Office VI as the Regional Winner of the Dangal ng Bayan Award in the 2023 Search for Outstanding Government Workers.
She was also hailed as Outstanding Master Teacher for the Division of Aklan during the Pagkilaea 2021, and the Top One of the awardees of ATOM (Aklan’s Ten Outstanding Mentors) in 2017.
She was also a recipient of numerous awards from the provincial and local government units of Aklan and from the different school districts for her remarkable performance as an exemplary teacher.

Inspirational Success Story:

She is one extraordinary basic education teacher who exemplifies the truest meaning of what a teacher should be – the mind of a visionary, the heart of a mother, and the professionalism of a public servant. Her mantra, “Basta para sa learners, go tayo dyan” (As long as it is for learners, I’ll go with you) echoes the prolific creativity inside her head. Besides her being a master teacher doing the conventional tasks of teaching in the four corners of the classroom, it has become customary for her to provide school supplies to underprivileged grade school children in the village before the opening of classes.
Her proficiency and ingenuity in writing as a teacher are exemplified by the number of children’s books she has authored and co-authored. Her leadership capability as a master teacher is measured by the number of school-based and division-wide teacher development and technical training she has led and organized. Likewise, her compassion and empathy for parents and affected families of learners, as well, is manifested in the number of socio-civic activities she has partnered with to combat learning challenges, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She has been a keen observer of the eagerness and interests of young learners to go to school and learn to read despite the economic challenges that deprive them of pursuing their dreams. As a Grade 1 classroom teacher for two decades, she has noted that the majority of her pupils do not have the opportunity to take hold of a book they could call their own before they come to school. This grim situation sparked an idea for Dr. Gungon. Consequently, in her desire to extend her passion for education, she planned to initiate an innovation that caters to the needs and desires of these young children to be in school – a project that would benefit school children, particularly the struggling readers in the public school where she is assigned, and also the kids on the block and out-of-school youths (OSYs) in the village where her family lives. Thus, Project SAGP Kabataan (Sama-samang pag-Agapay at pagGabay sa Pagmulat ng Kabataan) was born in 2018. SAGP was taken from the Filipino word “sagip” which means “to save”. As used here, Project SAGP intends to “save” struggling learners from reading illiteracies.
Originally, the main objective of Project SAGP was to develop a culture of reading among the pupils in the school where she is teaching. At first, she solicited and collected books from stakeholders and placed them in a reading corner inside her classroom. Her fellow teachers found the idea great that they, too, came up with the same corner in their classrooms. Because of this practice, the New Washington Elementary School where Dr. Gungon is a Grade 1 teacher was awarded as the school with the Most Functional Reading Program by the Department of Education (DepEd) Division of Aklan during the division-wide “Pagkilaea” (Recognition) 2021.
Inspired by the noble purpose and the outcome of her idea, she initially financed buying more reading materials to start a reading remediation sessions with the children and OSYs in the village’s hall during weekends. As the project progressed, the project made an impact on the reading abilities of its pioneer beneficiaries, and because of the positive response and feedback from parents, the local government unit (LGU) and other civic groups offered to collaborate with her in providing additional books and distributing snacks to the learners. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between and among Dr. Gungon, the Local Government Unit of New Washington, Aklan, the Aklan State University – New Washington Campus, the Municipal Tourism, Culture and the Arts Office of New Washington, and the Rotary Club of Kalibo to formalize the concerted effort. The village councils who oversee where the school children reside are also committed to extending whatever they can give for the benefit of their village children. Each of the involved parties has pledged support to this impressive project. Hence, on its first anniversary, each of the learners was given a colored book. It was the first time in their young lives that they owned a book that priceless smiles marked on their faces.
From then on, the project that began in her neighborhood to her school spread and was replicated in other adjacent villages by Dr. Gungon, with the support of local leaders, school officials, and parents. Feedback from the teacher-advisers of the first beneficiaries revealed that the reading proficiencies of the learners and OSYs have improved as shown by their performances in the PHIL-IRI Assessment and Comprehensive Rapid Literacy Assessment (CRLA).
For six years since Project SAGP Kabataan in 2018 was launched by Dr. Gungon, this innovative initiative has inspired more than a hundred children to start to read and love reading. It has continuously gained recognition not only in the community but in the agency she has committed to serve.
Aside from the above-mentioned projects, Dr. Gungon was also instrumental in proposing and leading the implementation of related reading activities during the Covid-19 crisis. These were “Sueo – Giya sa Pagtuon it Pagbasa sa Mother Tongue” (Torch – Guide in Learning to Read in the Mother Tongue), “The 5Cs Practice: Building Bridges in the New Normal”, and “Tulong Mo, Kinabukasan Ko” (Your Support, My Future), all aimed at addressing the learning challenges during the pandemic.
Indeed, service to humanity does not require an order; it just sparks in the mind and flows from the heart. As history continues to unfold in the Department of Education, children and OSYs in New Washington enjoy the benefits of what Dr. Gungon, a Master Teacher, has sown, nurtured, and sustained.
In recognition of these astounding reading readiness and related projects, Dr. Gungon was recognized and awarded by local and regional agencies and institutions. Most prominent among these awards was the 2023 Dangal ng Bayan Regional Winner of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) Regional Office VI. Other awards were as the Most Outstanding Master Teacher of the Department of Education (DepEd) Division of Aklan in 2021; the first high school alumni to be honored as the Natatanging Gawad Felimon Awardee in 2018; and as Topnotcher of Aklan’s Ten Outstanding Mentors (ATOM) in 2017. These are but some of the many other plaques and certificates she received honoring her exemplary service in the field of basic education.

She has initiated, implemented, and sustained the innovative reading intervention project, “Project SAGP Kabataan” by providing materials initially bought from her pocket, and conducting reading intervention sessions to the identified struggling readers in school and the community where she lives, as well as the OSYs enrolled in the Alternative Learning System (ALS) in the district. This community reading advocacy project by Dr. Gungon was recognized by the Ayala Foundation, Inc. as a model project in promoting reading among children, particularly the slow and struggling learners in school and the village where she lives.
Knowing the impact it is creating, the Ayala Foundation, Inc, (AFI) and the Department of Education, invited her as one of the guests to talk on “Promoting Reading in the Community” during the 6th Magiting Digicon last November 2022, on the theme: “Gurong Magiting: Kaagapay sa Pagbuo ng Isang Bansang Nagbabasa”. This allowed her to inspire advocates of reading in the Philippines to adopt or come up with their version of Project SAGP Kabataan in their respective localities and “save’ struggling readers and non-readers from learning poverty to becoming proficient readers.
While the projects’ impact is reflected in the improved reading performance of the beneficiaries and the image it creates becomes popular in the community, the voluntary collaborations and support from the local government unit (LGU) and the non-government organizations (NGOs) ensure that the sustainability becomes visible until today. With the good impressions that the projects carry along, and the compliments highlighting them, it is not farfetched that these exemplary innovations by Dr. Gungon would soon be institutionalized and become a model of reading programs in the country.

“Setting the example, making it happen by doing, and proving it by yourself” is how I would describe the kind of approach Dr. Gungon has implicitly adopted in initiating this remarkable teaching-learning innovation. By so doing, the impact it has established is felt in the community she lives in, the workplace she was destined to grow, and in the hearts of the learners, and their parents. The good impression of the innovation that has left a mark in the minds of the people who benefitted from it is a living and genuine testament that, indeed, the initiative she did was inspiring and worth emulating.

Evidence of works