First things first
THOSE who took part in the Second Congressional Commission on Education, or Edcom 2, can probably heave a sigh of relief at the enormous task of reforming the current Philippine educational system, particularly in relation to the anticipated implementation of Department of Education (DepEd) Order 002, s of 2024, titled the “Immediate Removal of Administrative Tasks of Public School Teachers.”
The order’s salient points can be further elucidated by the following: “With this endeavor, they (teachers) shall be able to focus on the teaching and learning process and become effective facilitators of learning. This initiative shall help protect and uplift the welfare and well-being of public school teachers to support them to teach better, which in turn, shall realize quality learning among Filipino learners. The policy is intended to ensure that a teacher’s working hours are maximized for actual classroom teaching and tasks.”
Edcom 2 wasn’t able to contain its excitement, saying: “We eagerly anticipate the full implementation of DepEd Order 002 that commences by March 26, 2024, or not later than 60 days after the release of the policy.”
It may be costly for the DepEd to look for replacements such as support staff and nonteaching personnel, teachers who used to perform administrative tasks that are not professionally aligned with their items as teachers. But we have to keep in mind that efforts geared toward quality means having to pay extra for them. With the new policy, educators are now free from other duties because they can now focus on what they are supposed to do: teach. Before this, teachers lose focus, and their efforts are so thinly distributed that they hardly have time to accomplish the tasks expected of them.
It has become public knowledge that there are tasks given to teachers other than teaching, and they are not even compensated for them. Teachers must be free from work that goes beyond their job description. This is exactly what the DepEd ordered, which is what is only proper for teachers and a wonderful effort that shows genuine care for them.
This issue once again brings us to the fact that the education sector can learn from business and industry if those in that sector are conscious enough of the wisdom of cross-institutional application theories and principles.
Vineet Nayar and his theories and practices, which he proposed some years back, have caught the attention of the Harvard Business School and several business establishments and organizations. His approach to leadership and management is not conventional. Nayar owns the Indian information-technology services giant HCLT, and his theories and practices are discussed in his book “Employees First, Customer Second: Turning Conventional Wisdom Upside Down.” He says it is an “[i]dea that will give many leaders and managers hives. HCLT successfully left behind outdated 20th-century management practices and embraced the management of the future, and how other companies can, too.”
Nayar emphasized the principle of prioritizing the needs and concerns of employees before those of customers. He said: “If our employees are to create the unique value, then what should the role of managers and management be? The obvious answer was nothing but enthusing, encouraging and enabling employees to create a unique experience. Here, employees are asked to evaluate their bosses and their bosses’ bosses as part of this culture to ensure that such practice serves the purpose of top management to be able to provide what is best for employees.” Following this logic makes sense. If you take good care of employees, they will, in turn, take good care of customers and, eventually, the bottom line.
In one of the chapters of Nayar’s follow-up to his famous book, he says if he could have expanded such an idea as applied to education, it would have been another book with the title “Teachers First, Children Second: Turning Conventional Wisdom Upside Down.” It is obvious that such wisdom provides the same lesson. If you take good care of your teachers first, then they will take good care of their students.
Care for people can mean putting them in the right place and letting them do what they are passionate about. This can also motivate them because they are given the opportunity for their voices to be heard, compensated with decent pay and given the recognition they deserve.
Many award-giving bodies recognizing excellent teachers should be commended. But building a culture and system where the best teachers and their ingenuity can be sources of influence for every educator should be built or established, as this is necessary to spread and share best ideas and practices with everyone.
Finally, we should be brave enough to ask an uncomfortable but practical question: “How can a positive environment be shaped and nourished to eradicate the notion that to be a public school teacher means just being a cog in a giant bureaucratic machine?”
Hopefully, the DepEd order would not only be taken as another cold, compliant, run-of-the-mill directive but a golden opportunity to truly care and motivate the much of the time unappreciated molders of the nation’s citizens.
Jesus Jay Miranda, OP, is an organization and leadership studies resource person. He teaches at the Graduate School of the University of Santo Tomas and the Department of Educational Leadership and Management of the Bro. Andrew Gonzalez, FSC-College of Education of De La Salle University in Manila.