Unity statement

WE HAVE come together today to stand as one— workers in the education sector who serve the Filipino people, and as part of the Filipino people who aspire for a more progressive, equitable and just society.

We lament the worsening crisis of the Philippine education system which drags with it the education worker’s working conditions and quality of life. Colonial orientation have pushed the Philippine education farther from the key objective of contributing to social transformation and national development. State abandonment and commercialization have weakened the access of Filipinos to education and deteriorated its quality.

Managing education according to the philosophy and norms of private business have exacerbated the situation of education workers through depressed salaries, overloading of work and contractualization. These exploitative practices are stripping us, education workers, of our basic labor rights and human dignity.

The Duterte administration does not show any indication that it will deviate from the dominant trends in education despite its electoral promise of change. It has done little to enhance access to and quality of education, much less alleviate us from the economic crisis or improve our working conditions. Its policies and priorities clearly favor its foreign masters, the ruling elite and perpetuating itself in power. Such is evident in the proposed education budget for 2019.

As such, we put it upon ourselves to collectively assert our rights as education workers, forward the people’s right to education and advance the kind of education that would help solve the problems of poverty and backwardness of our country.

From the basic to tertiary level, from public to private education institutions, both teaching and non-teaching education workers link arms to reverberate our collective demands: Decent salaries! Dignity of work! Right to education! — National Education

Workers Summit