If only a group of teachers can give grades to the current administration and the leadership of the Department of Education (DepEd), they would receive “F” marks or failing grades.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers Philippines (ACT), on Friday, July 9, slammed DepEd and the Duterte administration for its “turtle-paced response” in addressing teachers’ demand for benefits and salaries upgrade.
“Patapos na ang school year pero nasaan na ang mga pinangako ng DepEd? (“The school year is almost over but where are the promises of DepEd?),” said ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio.
The school year (SY) 2020 - 2021 officially closes on Saturday, July 10. “The school year is about to end but our teachers have yet to receive proper compensation for their services,” Basilio added.
Basilio noted that with so many demands required by DepEd from teachers, not once did the agency “timely and competently” respond to teachers’ concerns.
“Kung mabibigyan lang ng final grade ng mga guro ang gobyerno, isang mapulang ‘F’ na marka ang ibibigay nila dito! (If only the teachers can give the government a final grade, they will give it a red ‘F’ mark!),” Basilio added.
Long list of ‘debts’
ACT said that the government has “extended” teachers’ workdays for 77 days after the DepEd adjusted the academic calendar and moved the last day of classes from June to July.
The move aims to address the learning gaps under distance learning but for ACT, extending the school year “only worsened” with the implementation of the government’s “failed” program.
Basilio also criticized DepEd for being notorious for its “lies and incompetence” - with various DepEd officials “making empty promises throughout the school year.”
Such empty promises, ACT alleged, include the 100 gigabytes connectivity load for teachers and personnel, the procurement of laptops for teachers, and the overly delayed release of the P300 monthly communication reimbursement expenses for the months of 2020 and the Performance-Based Bonus (PBB) of 2019.
Basilio said that adding to DepEd’s long list of “debts” are the 25 percent overtime pay and service credits which was discussed during the dialogue between ACT, DepEd, and the Civil Service Commission (CSC) last June 24.
During the dialogue, ACT said that DepEd made a “commitment” to compensate each day of extended work with service, as well as working for the grant of 25 percent overtime pay.
Basilio added that the “biggest lie of them all” was the promise of President Duterte who said that he will upgrade the salary of teachers during his campaign for the presidential elections in 2016.
“We were promised of a commensurate salaries upgrade but what we got was a deceitful Salary Standardization Law V (SSLV),” Basilio said.
While education sector has been “continuously scammed” by the Duterte administration, Basilio said that the “teachers are good at taking notes and we will not stop until we have fully collected the government’s long-standing debts.”