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Last October 5, 2021, Tuesday, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT)  spearheaded the campaign for the 5 World Teachers’ Day (WTD) demands. 

Prior to the event, ACT planned an online petition and enlisted five demands of the education sector, collecting 1,808 signatures. There was also a mass absence of teachers last Tuesday as participation in the movement. 

ACT’s 5 WTD demands consisted of increase in salary; overtime pay; laptop, gadget and internet allowance for teachers and students, P10,000 non-taxable honorarium service in the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI); and P3,000 inflation adjustment allowance. 

The P10,000 non-taxable honorarium service  will serve as compensation for  the teachers who will be part of the BEI  for the upcoming 2022 elections. Furthermore, they included the need for transportation and food allowance, and hazard pay. 

However, the Department of Education (DepEd) was passive  in “recognizing these calls.” Brimmed with “gratitude” on WTD, DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones emphasized the teachers’ efforts in the second year of online learning and pledged to “address” their demands for a salary upgrade. 

“Your resilience and innovativeness are crucial factors in ensuring that we will continue to perform our mandate of delivering quality education for our children,” Briones said. 

Meanwhile, Senior High School Teacher II Ma. Christina Dioneda from Taguig Science High School regards her first year of remote learning as a big challenge. Her job took up most of her time, compromising her periods of rest for the sake of accomplishing the teaching requirements. With the piled up materials to prepare, learn, and relearn, her experience was indeed taxing. 

Meanwhile, ACT secretary-general Raymond Basilio slammed the education department as bearer of empty promises. He revealed that DepEd has yet to fulfill its 87 days of overtime payment which was discussed in the previous academic year. 

Furthermore, only 68,500 out of 1 million laptops were distributed by DepEd to public school teachers. 

Basilio also denounced the Duterte regime for its incessant disregard on the education sector, placing about 4 million teachers under the distress of fostering new normal learning conditions with scarce resources. 

“As teachers remain overworked, underpaid, and undersupported by the Duterte admin, we are challenged yet again to take action and utilize our collective strength to forward the interests of our sector. We shall exhaust all available measures, exercise our constitutionally protected rights and freedoms to better the conditions of millions of educators in the country and the state of Philippine education — not only for our benefit, but for the entire nation whom we continue to serve,” Basilio furthered. 

Dioneda lauded ACT for the 5 WTD demands as education agencies seem to pay no mind to the needs and calls of teachers. 

“I support these demands not only for teacher’s day but also I hope that these could be given for the full years of service of teachers,” Dioneda added. 

The Rise for Education Alliance-UP Diliman (R4E-UPD) expressed support for ACT’s movement, and  zeroed in on  the importance of educators as the foundation of a progressive society.  

They highlighted the struggles that teachers have to deal with in a new learning environment. Based on ACT’s survey, over 70% of 6,731 teachers were unsatisfied with the set-up as it endangers their mental and physical well-being. 

Teachers were also reported to mostly rely on their own budget for internet and online class necessities as the government continues to ignore the needs of the education sector. 

R4E-UPD also echoed the educators’ demands for sufficient online teaching equipment, additional funding, and internet assistance worth P1,500. They note it is high-time for teachers to receive their long-delayed salaries and benefits. . 

Compensation for excessive service beyond their schedule needs to be undertaken as well for educators have taken the burden of generating and transporting the modules to their students, which is the primary situation in far-flung areas in the country.

The P62.3 billion proposed 2022 budget of Commission on Higher Education (CHED) was cut by P9.6 which includes the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act that guarantees state universities and colleges; and local universities and colleges free tuition and exemption from other school expenses. 

On the other hand, the UP system’s proposed budget of 36.5 billion encompasses compensation benefits for its faculty, and staff. UP intends to allocate P2.2 billion of it to the regularization of its contractual workers by establishing permanent employment. However, the proposed budget was slashed to P20.1 billion by the president in the approved 2022 national budget. 

Formations and individuals have constantly called out the DepEd and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), raising that they should not only be active in words but also in immediately responding  to the demands of both educators and learners. 

Quality education will prosper if the system itself prioritizes its stakeholders, ensuring they are not hampered from raising their concerns and forwarding their campaigns. 

Last October 5, ACT also filed its certificate of nomination and certificate of acceptance of nomination for the party-list’s nominees. They seek to better represent teachers in the Congress, amplify their demands, promote their rights, and advance the campaign for Ligtas na Balik-Eskwela. 

“We pledge to represent, assist and defend teachers and other education workers in advancing our vocation, economic welfare and democratic rights. As the state continues to abandon the education sector especially amid the pandemic, ACT Teachers Party-List joins our teachers in the public and private sector in the struggle fight for their rights, substantial salary increase and security of tenure and an end to the criminal neglect to adequately address the pandemic, and the anti-poor policies of this administration,” ACT Rep. France Castro stated. 

Featured image courtesy of KJ Rosales.