Dressed in gowns despite the sweltering summer heat, members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines held a Santacruzan-themed protest at the gates of the Department of Education (DepEd) in Pasig City on Friday, May 28.
Dubbed “Protesta de Mayo,” members of the group held the protest to “expose multiple issues and urgent demands of the education sector under the unsupported distance learning.”
During the protest, ACT featured six “Titser-Reyna” who embody the various concerns and demands of the education sector amid the implementation of distance learning this school year.
ACT said that “Reyna Abonada” represents teachers shoulders the operational expenses of remote learning such as internet connectivity costs, among others.
“Reyna Alay,” on the other hand, embodies those teachers who are “forced to brave the dangers” of the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) just to deliver education especially to poor and disadvantaged students.
ACT said that “Reyna Pinaasa” represents those teachers “whose benefits are long overdue” such as the 2019 Performance Based-Bonus - among others.
“Reyna Walang Pahinga,” ACT said, embodies teachers who have been working for 12 months straight “without due pay nor leave benefits while “Reyna Haggarda” represent those who are “overburdened with the extreme demands of education” amid the pandemic and other crises.
ACT added that “Reyna Poorita” represents teachers who are “hardly surviving the pandemic and economic crisis” due to their meager salaries.
“Teachers have always been the ones to bear the brunt of education delivery with very little support from the government,” ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio said.
Even before the implementation of distance learning, Basilio said that teachers have been using their own salaries to “cover the operational costs of education” such as to procure their own chalk, teaching materials, projectors and the like.
“Now, the costs are just higher with the need for printers and multiple reams of bond paper, gadgets, and internet connection,” Basilio said. “But our salaries remains ever paltry, if not smaller than ever despite the SSL 5, just as our workload remain almost inhumane,” he added.
Basilio pointed out that the six issues and demands carried by ACT’s “Titser-Reynas” were not really new and have have been raised “time and again” - even before the school opening in October last year.
“They remain mostly unaddressed to this day while others came in so late and/or too little that it failed to bring teachers any relief,” Basilio said - noting that that most of these problems have existed long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country.