Despite the lengthened school year (SY) 2020-2021, the Department of Education (DepEd) maintained that the public school teachers were “not deprived” of vacation.
“Teachers had their vacation for school year 2019-2020 from April to May, as well as vacation for SY 2020-2021 from July to September, the difference being that it was pushed back for SY 2020 to 2021 in light of the extended school year,” DepEd Undersecretary and Chief of Staff Nepomuceno Malaluan in a virtual press briefing on Oct. 1.
Last school year, teachers were asked by DepEd to render services on June 1, 2020 before the classes formally started on Oct. 5. Due to the changes in the school calendar, SY 2020-2021 ended on July 10.
Teachers’ groups have been complaining about the “non-stop” work especially with the opening of a new school year on Sept. 13.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2021/08/31/teachers-appeal-to-deped-allow-us-to-rest-to-recharge/
However, DepEd noted that teachers were still able to get their vacation. “Nonetheless, in previous years, teachers were paid during these vacations through the commensurate and proportional vacation pay (PVP),” Malaluan said.
This, he added, is based on the computation under DepEd Memorandum No. 56 s. of 2021 entitled “Computation of Public School Teachers Proportional Vacation Pay for School Year 2020 -2021.”
Meanwhile, DepEd said that it acknowledged that “many teachers have been asked and authorized under certain circumstances to report for work on weekends and certain holidays in light of the extraordinary preparations that the department had to undertake.”
Given this, after consultation with the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and Department of Budget and Management (DBM), DepEd has issued clarificatory guidelines on the grant of vacation service credits to teachers for SY 2020-2021 in light of the COVID-19 pandemic through DepEd Order No. 65 series of 2021.
As amended by DepEd Order No 67 series of 2021, DepEd said that the recognized activities for service credit originally provided under DO No. 53 series of 2003 has been “expanded to include the extraordinary activities relating to the preparations” for SY 2020-2021.
“These activities, when done on weekends and holidays, are recognized service credits with an additional premium of 50 percent, that is 1.5 service credit recognized for every eight (8) hours of recognized activities rendered on weekends and holidays, subject to the usual documentary support,” Malaluan said.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2021/09/30/teachers-allowable-service-credits-for-sy-2020-2021-expanded-deped/
The newly-issued DepEd order has suspended the 15 days cap or limit allowable service credits for a year under DO series of 2003.