DepEd tells teachers to avoid interactions with students outside schools

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education is telling its personnel to refrain from having interactions with students outside of schools in a new order that contains a long list of other things teaching and non-teaching staff should keep from doing.

Under Department Order No. 49 issued Wednesday, DepEd personnel are told to “avoid relationships, interaction, communication, including following social media with learners outside of the school setting, except if they are relatives.”

Vice President Sara Duterte, who is also education secretary, told reporters Friday that this is to minimize biases on the part of teachers and prevent “criminal” incidents from happening.

“As a teacher, there has to be a line between him or her and the learner. They should not have friendly relations with their learners outside of the learning institution setting because people develop biases when they become friends with someone,” Duterte said partly in Filipino.

Duterte also recalled one incident where a teacher was allegedly stabbed by their student during a drinking spree.

“These instances are preventable if our teaching and non-teaching staff in the Department of Education recognize that lines should be drawn,” she said.

Other mandates of the order include raising issues and concerns regarding basic education through “formal and appropriate DepEd channels … without resorting to any political or third-party intervention or accommodation.”

DepEd staff were also told to “desist from any act that may compromise one’s integrity as a government employee and that may compromise the honor” of the department.

The new order also laid down guidelines on the use of social media, with one rule stating that personnel should not post “attacks” against fellow employees and that they should not “disparage DepEd.”

Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers party-list) slammed the order, saying it “gags” teachers and education support personnel.

"Why does the Department of Education feel the need to create such an order that gags and threatens teachers and education support personnel which treats them as mere creatures only of the school and dehumanizes them preventing them to exercise their right to free speech, expression, to organize and be able to voice out their grievances?" Castro said.

She continued, “If the education department insists on gagging its employees online and offline and prevents them from relating to others on things, not about the school, what else is left of them?” — Xave Gregorio