Teachers’ groups launch ‘education for all’ movement

Four national organizations of teachers formed yesterday the Education For All (EFA) Movement, a broad alliance that will campaign for quality basic education for Filipino children.     

The coalition is composed of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), the Samahan ng Manggagawang Pilipino-National Organization of Teachers and Office Workers (SMP-NATOW), Teachers’ Organization of the Philippine Public Sector (TOPPS), and Trade Union VIII-Education-Federation of Free Workers (TU VIII-FFW).

ACT chairman Antonio Tinio said the organizations forming the nucleus of EFA are all affiliates of Education International, the global union of teachers and education workers.

Tinio said EFA will include teachers, education workers, students, parents, and citizens committed to upholding the right to education that make up the membership of the four organizations.

EFA, he said, will exert pressure on the government to fulfill its commitment made at the World Education Forum in Dakar in the year 2000, to provide quality basic education for all by 2015.

The launching of the movement was held at the Batasan Hills National High School in Quezon City, attended by leaders and representatives of various teacher organizations, including the Manila Public School Teachers’ Association, Quezon City Public School Teachers’ Association, Philippine Public School Teachers’ Association-NCR, and faculty and staff unions from the University of the Philippines, Philippine Normal University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, University of Rizal System, La Concordia College, and Jose Rizal University.

Student leaders from various universities and high schools, parents representing PTCAs, school administrators, leaders of Kabataan Party, Gabriela Women’s Party, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, and the urban poor group Kadamay were present.

In a manifesto the movement issued yesterday, the alliance noted that the alarming increase in the number of dropouts and out-of-school children, low achievement levels, declining status of teachers and worsening conditions in public schools pose serious obstacles to the achievement of education for all by 2015. They called on the Arroyo government to take drastic action to address this problem by raising the budget for education to six percent of the gross national product; establishing free, universal preschool education; enacting a law making elementary education compulsory, in accordance with Article 14 of the Constitution; subsidizing poor children who are most at risk of dropping out; eliminating all school fees and charges in public schools; and ensuring a more conducive learning environment by providing adequate trained teachers, classrooms, and other resources.

The movement also urged for improving the status of the teaching profession by raising salaries and benefits of public school teachers, recognizing their democratic rights, including trade union rights, reducing class sizes and work loads, and providing adequate and high-quality teacher training.

The new group started yesterday a signature campaign to gather signatures of their manifesto to symbolize the demand for education for all. – Rainier Allan Ronda