Marites D. Opeña

International Luminary Award in Civic Works

21st Century Teachers PH Inc.,

Philippines

Treasurer

Personal Highlights:

Master of Arts in Education major in Educational Management – Completed Academic Requirements – City University of Pasay
Master Teacher I (February 24, 2024 – Present) – Schools Division of Pasay City – P. Villanueva Elementary School
Most Outstanding Project Chairperson – 2025 Temiong Award, JCI Philippines
One of the Ten Outstanding Guro Awardee 2024 – JCI Manila in partnership with DepEd Philippines
Chaired Projects – JCI Perlas Pasay
2025 – Project LINGAP (Laging Inaakay, Nililingap at Ginagabayan ang mga Pag-asa ng bayan), TOPP (The One Pearl of Pasay), Bag to School, and JCI RISE (From Cents to Success)
2024 –Regional and Local Project Chair of YLEA(Youth Leadership and Excellence Awards), Project LINGAP (Laging Inaakay, Nililingap at Ginagabayan ang mga Pag-asa ng bayan), Project CLAP (Community-based Literacy Acceleration Program), TOPP (The One Pearl of Pasay), and the Christmas Community Party
2023 – Project LINGAP (Laging Inaakay, Nililingap at Ginagabayan ang mga Pag-asa ng bayan) and Project CLAP (Community-based Literacy Acceleration Program)

Inspirational Success Story:

The Teacher Who Kept Coming Back: Marites Opeña and Project LINGAP

Teacher Tess has been a volunteer of 21st Century Teachers PH, Inc. since 2015. She stayed with us through changes in our professional lives, the demands of our respective careers, limited organizational resources, and the many disruptions that confronted Philippine education. She was not required to remain. There was no salary waiting for her and no assurance that her volunteer work would ever be publicly recognized. She continued because she shared the belief upon which we built our Foundation: education must continue, no matter what happens. For Teacher Tess, this was not simply an organizational statement. She lived it through the hours
she gave, the children she taught, and the responsibilities she accepted whenever there was educational work that needed to be done.

Her work in Project LINGAP is the clearest example of that commitment. Project LINGAP serves Kindergarten to Grade 3 learners from disadvantaged communities in Pasay City, particularly children living around Sgt. Mariano Cemetery and Barangays 147 and
187. Many of these children had weak foundational literacy and numeracy skills. Some were frequently absent or tardy. Others had begun to fall so far behind that regular classroom instruction was no longer enough to help them catch up. These children were not incapable of learning. They were living in circumstances that made consistent learning difficult. Some lacked learning materials at home. Some had no adult consistently available to guide them. Others struggled with lessons designed for competencies they had not yet mastered. When these difficulties accumulated, the children became less confident, participated less in class, and faced a greater risk of being left behind.

Project LINGAP was created to give them another chance. The intervention is not a one-day tutorial or distribution of school supplies. It consists of 10 Saturday learning sessions conducted over approximately two and a half months, with each session lasting four hours. Learners are organized into small groups so that volunteer teachers can understand their individual difficulties and provide focused support in literacy, numeracy, and values formation.

Teacher Tess joined the first Project LINGAP cycle in 2022 as a volunteer teacher. She worked directly with the children, observed how they responded to lessons, and saw the difference that consistent guidance could make. She became the project’s co-chair in 2023 and assumed responsibility as Project Chair in 2024 and 2025. Her role changed, but her approach did not. She continued to think first as a teacher. Before deciding what to teach, she wanted to know what the children could already do. Before measuring success, she wanted clear evidence that the learners had actually improved.

Teacher Tess introduced a structured system of pre-assessment, mid-assessment, and postassessment. The pre-assessment established each child’s starting point. The mid-assessment allowed the volunteer teachers to determine whether the lessons were working and which competencies still required attention. The post-assessment measured the progress achieved by the end of the cycle.

Assessment results were not kept merely as figures for a report. Teacher Tess used them to adjust the intervention. When a learner struggled with a specific reading or numeracy competency, the teachers modified their approach and provided additional practice appropriate to the child’s level. She also helped bring the teaching approaches of 21st Century Teachers PH, Inc. into the program, including the Foundation’s Naked Teaching pedagogy. This approach challenges teachers to deliver meaningful instruction using their knowledge of the learner, their creativity, and whatever resources are available. It reinforces the principle that effective teaching should not stop because a classroom lacks sophisticated equipment or ideal materials.

For children from communities with limited resources, this mattered. Project LINGAP did not wait for perfect conditions before teaching them. The program worked with what was available: volunteer teachers, simple learning materials, an accessible community venue, and people willing to give their Saturdays. Teacher Tess helped turn these limited resources into an organized learning experience. Project LINGAP has reached 85 young learners, with 83 completing the intervention. Each learning cycle maintained more than 80% learner retention. Post-assessment results showed average literacy and numeracy scores above 80%, exceeding the program’s academic targets. At least 80% of the learners successfully moved to the next grade level.

The numbers tell us that the intervention worked, but the changes became even more visible when the children returned to their regular classrooms. Teachers reported better participation, improved confidence, and fewer classroom disruptions among Project LINGAP learners. Children who had previously been tardy or frequently absent became more active in school. As they caught up with foundational competencies, their classroom teachers no longer needed to devote disproportionate time to helping them follow
lessons intended for the entire class. One child’s progress therefore helped improve the learning environment for other children as
well.

The influence also reached their homes. Some learners began helping younger siblings with lessons. Parents became more conscious of the importance of attendance and continuing learning support. Former Batang LINGAP beneficiaries later returned as volunteers, helping younger children through the same program that had once helped them. That is one of the outcomes I value most. A child who once needed someone to sit beside them eventually became willing to sit beside another learner. Project LINGAP grew through the collective effort of teachers, parents, youth volunteers, schools, community leaders, civil society organizations, private partners, and former beneficiaries. The program received support from 76 institutions and partners that contributed teaching expertise, venues, meals, school supplies, learning materials, logistical assistance, and other resources needed to sustain the learning cycles.

Within this collaboration, 21st Century Teachers PH, Inc. served as one of the primary movers of the educational intervention. The Foundation contributed volunteer teachers, instructional approaches, assessment practices, and the pedagogical direction that kept the project anchored on actual learning. Teacher Tess helped hold these different contributions together. She coordinated with teachers and partners, monitored the delivery of sessions, reviewed learner results, and ensured that the project did not lose sight of the children for whom it was created. But what sets her apart is not simply that she eventually became Project Chair. It is that she first
entered Project LINGAP as a volunteer teacher and never allowed leadership responsibilities to distance her from the learners.

She knew their difficulties because she had taught them. She understood why assessments were necessary because she had observed children struggling with lessons beyond their present competencies. She recognized the importance of small-group teaching because she had seen how differently children learn when a teacher has time to listen and respond.

Teacher Tess’s civic work is built on repetition: one Saturday, followed by another Saturday, followed by another. A single lesson may help a child answer one activity. Ten carefully designed sessions can help rebuild foundational skills. A volunteer who returns year after year can help create a culture in which children and families begin to trust that learning support will not disappear after one
outreach.

Teacher Tess has been returning since 2015.
She returned when the Foundation had limited resources. She returned when volunteer work had to be balanced with professional and personal responsibilities. She returned when educational disruptions made continuing the work more difficult. She returned as a teacher, then accepted the responsibilities of a co-chair and Project Chair when the program needed stronger leadership. She did not stay because the work was convenient. She stayed because children were still waiting to learn.

Through Project LINGAP, Teacher Tess helped children read more confidently, strengthen their numeracy, participate in class, return more consistently to school, and move to the next grade level. She helped families become part of the learning process. She helped former beneficiaries see themselves not only as recipients but also as future volunteers. Most importantly, she showed children that someone was willing to keep coming back for them.

Marites “Teacher Tess” Opeña represents the kind of volunteer teacher that 21st Century Teachers PH, Inc. hoped to nurture when it began in 2015: professionally competent, generous with her knowledge, responsive to children’s needs, and willing to continue teaching even when conditions are difficult.
Project LINGAP proves that community education does not always require grand infrastructure to create meaningful change. Sometimes it begins with a small group of children, simple learning materials, several hours on a Saturday, and a teacher who refuses to give up on them. For more than a decade, Teacher Tess has carried one message through her service: Education must continue—and as long as there are children waiting to learn, she will keep coming back.

Evidence of works: