House bill seeks to establish local e-Learning Centers
With virtual education part of the system of learning during the pandemic, six lawmakers have sought the establishment of an e-Learning Center in each of the cities and municipalities in the country.
Davao City 1st District Rep. Paolo Duterte co-authored the measure filed as House Bill 453 with Benguet Rep. Eric Yap, Quezon City Rep. Ralph Tulfo and ACT-CIS Partylist Representatives Jocelyn Tulfo, Jeffrey Soriano and Edvic Yap.
Duterte said the center shall “benefit not just the youth but also adults who seek to gain further knowledge and develop new skills.”
“It shall serve as a venue wherein people from all walks of life could have access to information and communication technologies,” he said.
The bill underscores the “imminent need for accessibility and availability of alternative modes of learning to at least alleviate the repercussions of the pandemic not only in terms of the quality of the educational system but also to the well-being of the students and teachers.”
Establishing these centers hopes to eradicate “these hindrances in the educational system.”
Under the bill, there shall be one e-learning center in every city and municipality nationwide and that an additional center shall be established in an area with a population of more than 100,000.
It also provides for the upgrading of existing public libraries and reading centers into an e-learning center.
The bill proposes to mandate the Departments of Education (DepEd) and of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to undertake the construction of the centers.
Free on-site housing
A new bill that enjoins government to provide public school teachers with free housing near their workplace has been filed by Pinuno Partylist Rep. Howard Guintu.
House Bill 1041, titled “Free On-Site Living Quarters for Public School Teachers Act,” is aimed at alleviating the burden of teachers, who have to spend long hours traveling to and from the public schools in which they teach.
“Sometimes our teachers get assigned to far-flung areas and must travel though mountainous regions for long hours just to reach their designated schools,” it said in the explanatory note of Guinto’s bill.
It also stated how some teachers have to cross rivers and even seas on a daily basis to teach students in island communities.
Guinto believes that by establishing on-site living quarters for them, teachers can be expected to have “improved employment and working conditions,” which would redound to better performance in teaching.
“Quality education can be ensured when obstacles to our educators’ working conditions are diminished,” he stressed in the bill.
Moreover, he noted: “Our teachers are also assigned additional duties by the government like anti-crime campaigns, conditional cash transfer, deworming, elections, feeding programs, population census and vaccinations.”
Under the proposed legislation, funding for the housing program shall be sourced from the existing funds of the DepEd and “shall later on be specifically allocated in the annual budget of the DepEd.”
Aside from this, “reasonable and sufficient additional funding” shall come from the Special Education Fund generated from the real property tax collected by concerned local government units where the
living quarters are located.