DepEd to assess teachers’ workload
The Department of Education (DepEd) yesterday announced it will launch this year a “workload balancing” tool as it vowed to implement policies that would lessen the administrative workload of teachers and ensure that they devote most of their time inside classrooms.
DepEd spokesman Michael Poa said the tool will identify how many hours teachers actually spend in classrooms and in fulfilling administrative duties. It would also enable the DepEd to identify administrative tasks that the agency could do away with or assign to nonteaching personnel.
He said the DepEd will also reduce “special tasks” assigned to teachers, as well as encourage local government units not to require them to attend different activities in their localities.
Policies issued by the Civil Service Commission and the DepEd provide that teaching hours should not go beyond six hours per day, with the remaining two hours allocated for tasks related to teaching.
Teacher groups earlier asked DepEd to clarify work hours after receiving reports of teachers having to work beyond their prescribed hours, on top of administrative tasks and activities related to preparation for classes.
Poa said a policy reiterating the working hours for teachers will be issued soon, as the agency “aggressively” works to reduce their workload. But he also recognized the problem of teacher shortage, resulting in additional class assignments for teachers in some areas.
The proposed DepEd budget for 2023 submitted to Congress showed that only 957,958 out of 1,004,992 positions in the department are currently filled, with 47,034 unfilled positions, including nonteaching personnel.
Out of the 10,000 new teaching positions created in 2021, only 5,581 were filled. Another 10,000 teaching positions were created for this year, with another 10,000 to be created next year.
More worrisome
Public school teachers heading abroad for work because of low pay is more worrisome compared to fears that teachers would migrate from private to public schools should salaries be raised, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said yesterday.
“Many of our colleagues are going abroad and applying for jobs in Vietnam, Thailand, China and Europe because being a teacher is hard in our country. Its tough to sustain a family with the P25,000 to P30,000 monthly salary received by 92 percent of public school teachers. We are also in charge of needs inside the classroom so we are riddled with debt. That is the truth that the government must face,” said ACT spokesperson Vladimer Quetua said.
“In no time, we will be losing the best of our teachers both in the public and private sector if the government does not remedy our situation quickly. Public and private school teachers are both underpaid,” Quetua added.
“Private schools, in fact, did not close down during the pandemic due to the exodus of teachers, but due to the transfer of many students from private to public schools. Using the old and worn-out private school card to deflect calls for salary upgrading is just a baseless and lousy excuse. Teachers don’t believe that,” Quetua said, adding that the big gap in pay between teachers in public and private schools is an injustice.