AWARENESS OF EDUCATORS ON TEACHERS’ PROTECTION POLICY

MARINA L. SAYGAN, LPT, MPE, PH.D.

Teachers today face challenges confronting today’s students’ behavior. Acknowledging and addressing these frustrations and desires is crucial to creating a more positive and effective education system. Managing disruptive student behavior is a significant pain point for many teachers. Classroom discipline is critical for ensuring a positive learning environment, but dealing with disruptive behavior can be emotionally draining for teachers, and with some problem children, teachers are sometimes victims of children and parents nowadays. That’s why a lawmaker is pushing to institutionalize a measure that will protect teachers in cases related to student discipline and classroom management. A teacher should know themselves first as a human being and then as a professional. Through self-knowledge, teachers recognize their own values and biases that might color their perception. Through this awareness, learning will take place to easily handle difficult situations in terms of students' behavior. Through ACT Teachers Party-List Representative Antonio L. Tinio, a lawmaker pushed to institutionalize a measure to protect teachers and school personnel in cases related to student discipline and classroom management. "While child protection is indispensable, teacher protection is also a must," Representative Tinio stressed. House Bill 5735, otherwise known as the Student Discipline and Teacher Protection Act, requires the Department of Education (DepEd) to issue policies and principles on student discipline and classroom management. The bill, which consolidated House bills 364,549 and 6940, provides for the creation of guidelines that define what constitutes child abuse, thereby protecting teachers from lawsuits that may arise from parents who think their modes of classroom management are abusive. With the advent of technology, stories posted online about teachers discipline methods may expose teachers to “online attacks and malicious and false imputations.” This House bill is important for the welfare of all teachers who suffer unequal protection and become victims of injustice at their respective schools. In this connection, it is important to develop a positive relationship between teachers, students, and parents, which requires constant communication. Building a good social attitude is an acceptable way of maintaining a harmonious relationship.