It’s not easy working as a public school teacher in the Philippines. Classrooms are overcrowded, the pay is low, teachers are sometimes unappreciated by students and parents, and the amount of paperwork they need to complete is staggering.
This is the struggle a young filmmaker tried to capture in a now-viral short film posted on Facebook and YouTube yesterday.
The almost 5-minute short is titled KPL 2: Resbak Kakak ni Mam. KPL stands for “kung pwede lang” or “if only” while “resbak kakak ni mam” literally means “the teacher’s revenge rant.”
This is the sequel to the first KPL video posted in July where a student fantasizes screaming at her teacher for giving what she thought were unreasonable demands. The sequel now airs the side of the teacher, who’s played by award-winning director-actress Roanna Mercado.
Mercado also provided the voice of the teacher in the first KPL video, where she remained off-cam.
Both shorts appeared on VinCentiments, a Facebook account owned by Vincent Asis, the video’s editor.
In the latest one, Mercado wears glasses and a teacher’s uniform and sits in front of the blackboard talking to her students.
She complains in a mix of Filipino and English: “You think you’re responsible for so many things in this world. I feel so bad for you. You only think about your family. But how many are you in one classroom? 50? How many sections do I have to manage? Six! Fifty times six? 300. 300! 300! What am I, a Spartan?
The short also touches on how some public teachers end up selling products to their students because they don’t get adequate funding from the government to buy school supplies.
Mercado rants: “The way you complain about the stuff I sell, do you think I can get rich from that? The amount I earn goes to the class fund. Do you think we’re given money [by the government] for everything? I have nothing to eat and I still have to buy markers? I have nothing to eat and I still have to buy bond paper?”
She screams later: “It’s so difficult to be a teacher in a country where your salary is just equal to a tip!”
The video has gone viral and has been shared more than 127,000 times on Facebook. It was also posted on YouTube where it has been viewed more than 37,500 times.
Coconuts Manila interviewed 31-year-old Darryl Yap, who wrote, directed, and produced the short film. He shared that there will be four more movies for the KPL series.
Yap said the series was titled Kung Pwede Lang (“If Only”) because these are complaints that people keep to themselves.”If Only” is short for “If only I could say this.”
“These are rants that people want to say out loud. This is more of a therapeutic short film for those who are depressed when they think no one can understand what they are going through,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino through Facebook messenger.
He said that for this movie, he interviewed his parents. “My mother is a teacher in a public high school in Olongapo while my father is a regional supervisor for the Department of Education in Central Luzon. So I asked them what the teacher should say [in this movie].”
He said casting Mercado was a natural choice since she was the voice of the teacher in the first movie. “She’s mature-looking in a good way. She also resembles an educator when you see her,” he said.
Yap said the movie serves to give a voice to public school teachers, who are overworked and underpaid.
“If students have a lot of complaints, it’s time they know where teachers are coming from. KPL 1 and KPL 2 were not made to create conflict between them. It’s for the Department of Education or the government to see today’s state of education.”
The feedback online was mixed.
Wrote John Vincent Conde, a teacher: “Well done! Thanks! I have been waiting for this! Haha! F*ck it, long live to us underrated teachers! Underpaid! Underestimated! But we have so much work! F*ck it!”
A netizen using the name Bu Choo Koi wrote that teachers should just quit. He wrote: “Then don’t put up with it, look for another job that will make you happy, dont (sic) look for a graveyard that will make your agonies (sic). Who told you to be a teacher, patience is a virtue.”
Katherine Monding didn’t like the video.
She wrote: “Though I do not condoned (sic) the first student video, this one is not acceptable too. There’s a specific way of expressing this emotions (sic), in a proper and professional way and in a matured (sic) way that simply rising among the rest.”
She adds: “There’s always a proper approach in reaching out for you to be understood… Teachers need not to step (sic) this level just to voice out what they want to be heard…”
Frj Falcis, who said her mother was a public school teacher, liked the short film. She also wrote about how her mother dedicated her life to her career.
She wrote: “I commend this video which truly voice (sic) out all the concerns of a public school teacher. My mother was once a public teacher and she used to sleep 3 hours every night just for all the paper works, lesson plans and school events/programs to prepare.”
She adds: “This really stressed out (sic) genuine issue on sacrificing the salary for school cartolinas, papers, pentlepens for the students. Plus she travels (sic) 3 hours everyday to school from home and another 3 hours way back home. That is really tiring but that is the life of a teacher. Until she got sick and blind today because of that lifestyle as a teacher.”
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