Teachers hit continued work during school break

MANILA, Philippines — Three weeks after the official start of the school break, teachers continue with their work to fulfill some of the requirements imposed by the Department of Education (DepEd), according to a group advocating for teachers’ welfare.

In many public schools, teachers are spending what should have been their mandatory break to complete their portfolio for the Results-Based Performance Management System, which is used for their performance evaluation.

Before that, they had to complete other paperwork, such as the records of their students last school year.

A few weeks from now, teachers will have to participate in Brigada Eskwela and enrollment for the incoming school year, which the DepEd said may start on the last week of August.

This is on top of the voluntary National Learning Camp that the DepEd started implementing this week, along with other learning recovery programs.

While teachers receive service credits for some of the activities they take part in during the break, groups said the lack of sufficient rest before the start of a new school year may have dire consequences.

During his second State of the Nation Address on July 24, President Marcos said his administration is working hard to lessen the administrative workload of teachers.

“We are augmenting as well our school workforce. Ninety percent of the newly created teaching positions have now been filled, while additional administrative personnel have been hired to unburden the teachers of any extra load,” he said.

But according to the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), the government should provide clear and definite plans on how the DepEd will lessen the administrative loads and tasks currently handled by classroom teachers.

“They keep on saying that they will reduce the admin load of our teachers, but until now there is still no clear mechanism on how they will do it. We still do not see enough education support personnel in the schools,” ACT chairperson Vladimer Quetua said in Filipino.

“Teachers continue do these administrative duties. It has been (more than) 21 days since the start of the vacation in public schools, but there is still no reprieve for teachers due to the reports and paperwork that they ask us to do,” he added.

Many teachers, he said, continue to report to school despite the mandatory two-month school break that those in public schools receive in lieu of leave benefits.

Quetua noted that the government failed to provide specific details on the number of positions that have been filled, stressing that there is still a clear shortage of education support personnel in public schools.

“We were not impressed with this another promise of giving support to teachers as we have not seen any progress since the Marcos-Duterte administration started. What we want to hear is a clear plan, not just empty words,” Quetua said.