MORA SANTAMARIA TEODOSIO

Category: Significant Personality

District of Kalibo II

Mrs. Mora Santa Maria Teodosio’s love for teaching started when she was in first grade. She and her younger siblings usually played school with her as the teacher. She passed on to her siblings the skills she had mastered in school—songs, math, and reading.

Florencio Macahilig Sta. Maria of Talangban, Camaligan Batan and Angela Ignacio Malolos of New Buswang, Kalibo has eight children, with Mora being the fourth.

She studied at Camaligan Elementary School from Grade I to Grade III. She and her three elder sisters had to walk the three kilometers distance to school through a narrow trail with tall grass and thick bushes on both sides.

In 1955, the family moved to Kalibo for the children to get better education. Mora was enrolled in Section 1 of Grade IV. She was bullied by some rude boys because she seemed small, and a very less privileged girl from the barrio, wearing faded dress and wooden slippers. She even felt inferior among her classmates and just prefer to keep herself. She only spoke when the teacher is asking her. When she graduated from the sixth grade, she had only few friends.

Mora was enrolled in Northwestern Visayan Colleges during her first year in college, Section 1. She continued to be quiet in class, merely listening to the instructors and not putting up her hands to speak. When she aced the test, her teachers began to take notice of her. She received her high school diploma as class salutatorian.

She enrolled as a college freshman taking the two-year course in elementary teacher’s certificate. After graduating from the course, her father took her to Davao to join her eldest sister who was teaching there. She was assigned to Jose Abad Santos, a town along the Pacific Ocean. To get there, you have to ride a steamboat from Davao City Port. The steamboat bound for Balut Island on the tip of the mainland, passed through the coastal carried on the steward’s shoulder. Going back to the central school was scary. You must walk for hours through trails up and down the crevices of high, rocky, mountains with only a rope or vines woven together to hold on to. She described in a letter to her father the peril and difficulty of getting to and from her teaching location. Her father approved her return home. However, she pursued a teaching degree, received her diploma in 1967, and that summer she took and passed the Civil Service Exam.

In June 1967, she was assigned as a substitute Teacher in Badiangan Elementary School and in July, a provisional position in Tibiao Elementary School, District of Altavas. That time, she had to walk seven Kilometers from the highway to school and vice versa. She passed the Civil Service Examination and was transferred to Morales Elementary School in June 1968. She taught there for seven years. Mr. Oscar Chu, the Division Science and Math supervisor, observed her class during his visit the school. Mr. Chu recognized her skills and potential and sent her as a Mathematics Summer Institute from April 1 to May 11, 1975 at the West Visayan State College, Iloilo City. In June 1975, Mora was transferred to Balete Elementary School to conduct a try-out class using the new Educational Development Projects Implementing Task Force (EDPITAF) Mathematics book for Grade VI.

Mrs. Elaie Ricablanca, Division English Supervisor was impressed at the performance of Mora’s English class as well as in her narrative report. In 1980, she was one of three teachers in the Division of Aklan to receive the 1980-1981 MICRO-VI Reading Scholarship of the Philippine Normal College.

She married Sgt. Neil F. Teodosio, Philippine Constabulary on December 14, 1983 with whom she has a child. In June 1984, she transferred to Kalibo Pilot Elementary School in charge of the last section of Grade V. When Kalibo was divided into District I and District II, in January 1985, Mora and three other teachers from the Kalibo Pilot Elementary School were shifted to Kalibo II.

The ones Kalibo Pilot Elementary School housing Grade I to IV classes became the Central School of Kalibo II and was named Kalibo Elementary School. It was a home coming for Kalibo Elementary School, reacquiring its original name. Mora inspired the teachers in the new central school to do their best to improve pupil performance. She spearheaded programs and projects involving the participation of parents, pupils, teachers and the community.

In September 1987, Mora was one of the ten outstanding teachers of the Philippines honored by Metrobank Foundation. For some time, Kalibo Elementary School had no assigned principal. Mora did the job of the principal. As Master Teacher II in-charge of the school, she had stirred the school to greater heights. Through her leadership and dedication, the school won as the Most Effective School in the Division of Aklan in 1990.