A group of teachers on Tuesday, Jan. 4, urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to retain the work-from-home set-up (WFH) among public school teachers amid the rising cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), especially in Metro Manila.
The Teachers' Dignity Coalition (TDC) asked the leadership of DepEd under Secretary Leonor Briones to publicly declare that the agency is compliant with its policy on alternative work arrangements for public school teachers.
TDC Chairperson Benjo Basas, in a series of Facebook posts, also called the attention of DepEd officials to reiterate the alternative work arrangement of public school teachers.
Some schools or division offices in Regions III and IV-A, Basas alleged, have been asking teachers to report physically.
“Relax, 'wag niyo na dagdagan ang exposure ng tao para hindi matulad dito sa NCR . Remote modalities ang teaching, remember? (Relax, do not expose people further so that you will not have the same situation here in NCR. We use remote modalities in teaching, remember?)," Basas said.
TDC said that it has been receiving some reports of schools requiring the physical presence of their teachers despite the remote teaching modalities employed by DepEd.
NCR was placed under Alert Level 3 from Jan. 3 to 15.
Starting Jan. 5 until Jan. 15, the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, and Rizal were under the same stricter alert level.
Given this, DepEd said that the planned expansion of limited face-to-face classes is currently on hold.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2022/01/02/expansion-of-face-to-face-classes-on-hold-until-jan-15-deped/
In another post, Basas called the attention of Education Secretary Leonor Briones to make a public announcement that the work-from-home scheme is still the default set-up for classroom teachers performing online and modular distance learning modalities.
He also called the attention of DepEd Undersecretaries Anne Sevilla, Tonisito Umali, Revsee Escobedo and Diosdado San Antonio on the matter.
The WFH scheme, Basas said, must still be the default set-up for teachers until the lifting of the declaration of a national emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To determine the extent of alleged violations in the field, TDC also initiated a series of online consultations with teachers nationwide.