“CATCH-UP FRIDAYS” AN ADDITIONAL WORKLOAD FOR TEACHERS

Deped has launched a memorandum regarding the implementation of CATCH-UP FRIDAYS dated January 10, 2024 stating that the memo should be implemented across the country starting January 12, 2024. The said memo will be followed by all elementary and secondary teachers nationwide. Deped intends to improve and strengthen the foundation of every learner in terms of reading, and to foster values, health, and peace education. According to the memo, the first half of the day’s schedule will be devoted for reading to compensate the deficit of the learners when it comes to reading comprehension. On the second half of the day’s schedule, learners will focus on values, health, and peace education. This initiative of the department is highly appreciated by all the people concerning education especially learners which are the focus of this learning mechanism.

Being at the down level, teachers are expected to be the implementer of this said memorandum. As can be remembered, teachers are appealing to lessen their workload including administrative work which until now cannot be felt by the teachers. The immediate implementation of Catch-up Fridays will serve as another burden on the part of the teachers because as reflected in the memo, teachers are enforced to teach Values Education which is under Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao (ESP), Health Education under Mapeh and Peace Education under Araling Panlipunan. Elementary teachers might get used to teaching all the subjects for they are considered as generalists but on the part of secondary teachers, these are nothing but a great challenge for them. For example, a Mathematics teacher is assigned to teach Peace Education as it is the prescribed subject in the class schedule for Friday. If his lesson is about Calculus, he has to integrate Peace Education in his subject which is quite challenging and impossible to achieve. In other words, teachers must study another teaching load to effectively execute the lessons every Friday.

As stated in the memo, teachers should apply integrative approach of teaching however the department has devised templates which are equivalent to Daily Lesson Logs (DLL) which will again be added to their tasks as teachers. Although the activities are not graded, it is very clear that the teachers will soon be deprived of adequate rest because they have to attend LAC sessions and accomplish reports regarding Catch-up Fridays. This learning mechanism initiated by the department might be the solution to upskill the learners’ ability to read and recognize their vital role in nation-building. Nevertheless, this can probably be a hullabaloo on the part of the teachers as this is an added responsibility to them.