‘Heed the Plea of Teachers on Opening of Face to Face Classes’

After almost two years and five months of closing schools due to Covid-19 pandemic, now the teachers are back to the battlefield of combating ignorance and in restoring quality learning for the students. Likewise, the teachers have remained resilient despite the imminent tasks and mission they have in school. The same holds true among the learners who obviously hunger for learning post the new normal.

Sadly, the teachers are daunted with burden on their shoulders from preparing their dilapidated classrooms of leaking roofs, dysfunctional chalkboards, toilets, the lack of chairs and water supply, lighting bulbs, flooding of school vicinity, and other physical and structural problems. The teachers squeeze effort to alleviate classroom condition and in addressing issues to as much as even digging financial resources from their own pocket in lieu of the school MOOEs limited funds.

Moreover, the teachers are compelled to fill in learning gaps amidst the pandemic threat; and to their dismay, they discovered that the students are deficient in terms of learning competencies which are vital for the face-to-face classes. As such, this has caused a turbulence in the preparation of lessons.

Class size ballooned from 45 to 70 students that impact the wellbeing and sanity of teachers due to massive influx in the enrollment of students. This warrants more items for a teaching position. Today, teachers lament on the Set A and Set B implementation as a scheme to address the lack of classrooms and teachers. The scheme split the class into two halves from a regular and ideal class of 20 to 30 students. This means, that in a set supposedly at least 15 students are accommodated in an hour class.

Vaguely, the teachers’ plight is a confirmation of Deped Spokesman Michael Poja who announced recently, that teachers have no salary increase to expect as this would create undue pressure on private school owners to also increase salaries of their teachers, of which many of them have transferred to public schools. A teacher in public schools receives P25,439 monthly gross pay but it’s not enough as they would only have P19,000 net pay which obviously is way below the poverty threshold of P33,210 per month as set by IBON Databank, an economic think tank. More than 90 percent of the teachers have the net take pay of P5,000 while succumb to different loans. This is the reason that many teachers have resigned teaching and teach anywhere in the world like Thailand and North America where salaries would range from P50,000 a month to P200,000 or even higher.

As now, we are celebrating the Teachers’ Month from September 5 to October 5, we plea and demand that the dismal plight of our teachers be alleviated. We adhere to the Education Recovery Agenda of ACT Philippines which are: Upgrade salaries of Teachers from Salary Grade 11 to Salary Grade 15; students assessment to know the extent of learning crisis; hire more teachers and school personnel to lighten the overburden workloads; provide learning gadgets both to teachers and students; internet allowance; strengthen teaching of Philippine History to elevate nationalism; enactment of Marna Carta for private school teachers; review of K+12 program; grant overtime pay for teachers; double school MOOE; reduce class size; additional budget for education at least 6 per cent of the GDP; and health benefits for teachers.

Listening to the plea and woes of the teachers during this month-long celebration will enable us to effectively navigate the post Covid face-to-face classes. Let the theme of this year’s be truly realized that “Gurong Pilpino, Dangal ng Sambayanang Pilipino. “* (Press Statement of BCPSTF and ACT Bacolod)