A federation of private schools on Wednesday urged the government to clearly identify who really are the “displaced teachers” as the Bayanihan 2 law takes effect.
The Federation of Associations of Private Schools Administrators (FAPSA) said that the memorandum from the Department of Education (DepEd) is already out for the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Republic Act. No. 11494.
As cited in the law, P300 million will be set aside for subsidies and allowances for displaced teaching and non-teaching personnel in public and private educational institutions affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, FAPSA raised some inquiries not to DepEd which issued the memo but to the government. “First, who are the displaced teachers?” FAPSA President Eleazardo Kasilag asked. “Are not all teachers -- except those from big Catholic and Chinese private schools -- considered displaced?” he added.
Kasilag said that since March, private school teachers “have been out of jobs and not receiving anything.” While the government has provided several assistance to displaced workers and others affected by the pandemic, he noted that “most of our school personnel were not able to avail of these.”
Since August, Kasilag said that many private schools have already started operating. Owing to poor enrollment, he said that “teachers are given minimal or half of their usual salary -- in fact, even lower than the minimum wage.”
Kasilag noted that some private schools, just like his school - St. Nicholas in Marikina - decided to “open just to provide work for teachers and cater to few enrollees who decided to continue with us.”
As schools like his continue to bleed, Kasilag lamented that these schools “have nothing left” to pay for utilities and other bills. “Our FAPSA teachers understand our plight but it is pitiful,” he said. “We just came to a point of acceptance, where we acknowledged that this is not for the rest of our lives but honestly, I am not sure how to relate,” he added.
Initially, Kasilag said that teachers were enjoined to find higher paying jobs -- even if these are not necessarily teaching. However, recognizing that some teachers do not have anywhere to go, he noted that “I would rather not say it.”
FAPSA also asked the government if public school teachers are really included in the subsidy. “They receive pay regularly and even allowances, bonuses have been advanced to them,” Kasilag said. “The public school teachers are the envy of our teachers in the private schools their table is always abundant compared to ours,” he added.
Kasilag also asked about manner of distribution for the subsidy. He noted that the P300 million is “not enough” because if a teacher receives P8,000 each, only 37, 500 school personnel will receive it.
Citing data from DepEd, he noted that there are 263,000 personnel in the private schools. “That is in basic education alone but the allocation includes the tertiary education personnel,” Kasilag said.