Andronico Del Rosario
We understand how hard it is for parents and children to “go to school” during these trying times; which is why someone like Banjo Villacruz feels like a much-needed breath of fresh air.
Villacruz, according to his Facebook profile, is a licensed teacher who currently works as a member of Pag-IBIG Fund’s Marketing and Sales team at their head office. However, his Facebook video has been the talk of the town ever since that announcement video above.
https://www.facebook.com/100038033208474/videos/332726808005090/
According to his announcement video, he will be teaching Math to students who were in grades 5 or 6 last year for free. Yes, absolutely free.
His online class was done on October 4 via Facebook Live on his personal account and has garnered praise from netizens.
https://www.facebook.com/100038033208474/videos/333269734617464/
https://www.facebook.com/100038033208474/videos/333295027948268/
He has even gotten messages asking him how they can help improve his online classes—like getting a bigger whiteboard. The offer came from one of his classmates in grade school.
https://www.facebook.com/banjo.villacruz.7/posts/333312787946492
Banjo showed humility and turned down the offer, saying he wants to “prove that he can teach”, asking his friend to come back to him in three weeks.
Apart from his friend’s offer, he has also received numerous messages from people willing to donate. He has turned down every single one of them, asking people to donate at least a ream of long bond paper to one of their friends or former teachers instead.
https://www.facebook.com/banjo.villacruz.7/posts/336144737663297
Villacruz is just one of possibly hundreds of netizens sacrificing their time on weekends to help out with the country’s pandemic-stricken education system. People have offered to either teach or help teachers conduct classes in an easier way through free courses on using Zoom and other similar apps.
Some have even offered to help teachers set up a server on Discord, a messaging and voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) platform that’s been used by gamers since its inception. Discord has been the go-to for gamers because of its stability and lower data consumption.
https://www.facebook.com/NiceTry.TryHarder/posts/3358914064131031
People like these show that not everyone is out to grab the Department of Education by the throat. There are those who are still willing to help without asking for anything in return.
