A federation of private schools urged politicians to “stop spoiling” the teachers in public schools -- especially now that the learning of students is essentially home-based.
The Federation of Associations of Private Schools Administrators (FAPSA), in a statement, denounced some politicians and groups who are “spoiling the public school teachers with perks” while the parents -- who are tasked to monitor their children’s studies at home -- “get nothing.”
FAPSA president Eleazardo Kasilag itemized the benefits for public school teachers pushed by both chambers, including the Senate Bill 1092 authored by Senator Ramon Revilla, Jr., which aims to increase teaching supplies allowance up to P10,000 for Department of Education (DepEd) teachers; the House Bill 7744 or Teaching Supplies Allowance Act which proposes to increase the allowance up to P20,000 in the coming years; and the House Bill 7799 or the proposed Internet allowance for all DepEd Teachers amounting to P1,500 monthly to help teachers during this crisis.
Aside from politicians, FAPSA also pointed out the call made by E-Net Philippines asking for an additional 25 percent hardship pay for public school teachers.
“The politicians spoil the teachers for what they want, not what they need,” Kasilag said. “Despite this, the DepEd teachers still complain of meager pay,” he added, noting that some teachers’ groups still “slam abrupt passage of education support exclusion in 2021 national budget” for excluding some incentives and allowances.
Kasilag noted that under the distance learning approach, parents are the “frontliners” this school year because “they do half of the work and they are the ones directly involved.”
The DepEd, Kasilag said, has “unloaded of heavy work” of public school teachers when it streamlined the K to 12 curriculum from over 14,000 to around 6,000 Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELCs). Since public school teachers are allowed to work from home, he noted that there would be no transportation costs. “All these, unload the DepEd teachers of considerable challenging work for these were not there before Covid-19.”
Despite all these, Kasilag lamented that public school teachers “still enjoyed their monthly salaries in full” -- on top of other incentives and allowances.FAPSA noted that in this time of pandemic, some parents are forced to quit their jobs just to serve as “substitute teachers” for their children who are not physically allowed to go to schools.
“It is double whammy since this time the parents are also the ones doing all the hardest job of the classroom teachers,” Kasilag said. “The parents sacrifice a lot for they are not educators yet forced to do education work.”
Kasilag said that parents -- who are now considered the substitute teachers at home -- should be given assistance also. “DepEd teachers do not need chalk because there is no face to face and they work from home, the parents also need the internet allowance,” he added.
Earlier, Cagayan Governor Manny Mamba said that the public school teachers are “enjoying” themselves because they receive salaries even without doing anything. Kasilag agreed with Mamba noting that his “observation is valid.”
Given this, FAPSA appealed to the politicians to extend assistance to the parents as well. “Parents are also voters themselves, are more than DepEd teachers so we requesting to give to the parents what they need,” Kasilag said.
Should the assistance be given to parents, Kasilag added that those who are sending their children to private schools should be covered as well since they are also paying taxes.
“Our parents should not be delisted just as the government excluded the private schools from all these rewards -- do not do these to our FAPSA parents,” Kasilag said. “You can give what DepEd teachers they want but give the front line parents what they need.”