The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Tuesday, Aug. 10, lambasted the Department of Education (DepEd) for “denying teachers of genuine rest” as directives and instructions for various tasks poured non-stop from the agency a month into the supposed school break.

“Our teachers are very tired after working non-stop for 13 months without proper compensation, overly delayed benefits, and without genuine work break since the start of the pandemic last year,” ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio alleged.

ACT also slammed DepEd for its “non-action” on its commitment to compensate three-month worth of teachers’ overtime last school year with service credits and to request for a budget to finance the 25 percent overtime premium.

Basilio detailed the week-on-week tasks that were given to teachers since the end of classes on July 10. These include organizing graduation programs, reading of forms, and submitting various reports that include the performance evaluation portfolio, Learning Delivery Modules, learners’ performance report, summary of quarterly summative assessments, feeding program, school based management documents --- among others.

“Dinadaya ng DepEd ang mga guro (DepEd is deceiving the teachers),” Basilio alleged.

Supposedly, the teachers’ work was finished on July 10 and the opening of classes will be on Sept. 13. However, Basilio noted that teachers are receiving orders “left and right” without an official work order.

Basilio explained that DepEd recently released DO 029, s. 2021 which detailed the school calendar for school year 2021–2022 and sets the class opening next month. However, he noted that the start of “Brigada Eskwela” was scheduled on Aug. 3 or - less than a month since the last SY came to a close while enrollment period is set to start on Aug. 16.

“Malinaw sa kalendaryo mismo ng DepEd, wala itong plano na pagpahingahin ang mga guro. Hindi na ito makatao, hindi makina ang ating kaguruan! (It is clear from the DepEd calendar itself, it has no plans to give teachers a rest. This is no longer humane, our teachers are not machines!” Basilio lamented.

To address this, ACT demands that DepEd “immediately respond to these concerns as teachers have been burning out” long before classes came to an end last month.

The group also noted that many have also expressed experiences with physical and mental distress from the grueling year under distance learning.

“Our teachers need a break, too,” Basilio said. “With meager salaries and delayed benefits, overwhelming workload, and excessive work hours, they are already being subjected to inhumane working conditions, and the least the government can do is give them time to recuperate and compensate them for their service,” he added.

Meanwhile, ACT said it has sent follow up letters to both DepEd and CSC on their agreements as regards teachers' OT pay and service credits.