Roco wants tutors out of poll duties

Education Secretary Raul Roco has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to find other canvassers for the 2004 elections, saying teachers must be freed from non-teaching duties.

"We must let the teachers concentrate on teaching so they and our students can increase contact time in learning the core competencies they are supposed to learn in school," he said.

Under Republic Act 6646 or the Omnibus Election Act, teachers are required to serve as members of boards of canvassers that supervise voting and canvassing of votes during elections.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) has long been opposing this system because teachers lack protection from harassment and the release of their election allowances is delayed.

ACT is threatening to boycott the 2004 elections unless the government addresses these concerns. The group is composed of some 100,000 public school teachers nationwide.

Roco said Congress must repeal RA 6646, considering that the Comelec has been mandated to computerize since 1995.

"The most important is to de-politicize the education system. Years of using the teachers for elections have made them vulnerable to threats, physical harm and corruption," he said in a press briefing.

Roco proposed that the Comelec instead tap college students or Reserved Officers Training Course (ROTC) cadets during elections.

"The Comelec can deputize anybody but teachers to render election duties. It’s up to them to choose but we want it known that we want teachers freed from non-teaching duties," he added.

Roco hopes that his early pronouncement of his resolve to liberate teachers from election tasks would prompt the Comelec to computerize in time for the 2004 polls.

"If teachers are not obliged to render election duties, this would serve as an impetus to the Comelec to ensure that by the next elections, we have efficient, computerized polls," he said.