With the gradual resumption of in-person learning in schools, a group urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to ensure that there will be enough funds for the progressive expansion of face-to-face classes.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines, in a statement issued Monday, March 14, asked the DepEd where the budget for school reopening preparations is. This, after receiving reports, that teachers had to spend their own money to fulfill the requirements for the resumption of face-to-face classes.
“Our teachers and school heads are toiling in schools even on weekends to clean the classrooms, repaint desks, install signages, and others at their own expense so that their schools will pass the validation process for inclusion in the implementation of limited face-to-face classes,” ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio said.
ACT alleged that in Tarlac, for instance, “teachers shell out money from their own pockets to prepare their classrooms for the expanded implementation of limited face-to-face classes.”
Based on the accounts of teachers and school heads, Basilio said that the participating schools have not received any additional budget to fund the requirements set by the DepEd and the Department of Health (DOH) to qualify for the limited in-person learning.
On March 2, Education Undersecretary for Finance Annalyn Sevilla announced that the DepEd agency has allotted an additional P977 million to prepare schools for the progressive expansion of face-to-face classes.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2022/03/02/p977-48-m-allotted-for-progressive-expansion-of-face-to-face-classes-deped/
“Our teachers are eager for in-person learning to resume as the learning crisis has reached alarming levels,” Basilio said.
“However, it is not fair that they and their already too meager salaries are made to bear the burden of physically preparing the schools,” he added.
Basilio alleged almost six months since the DepEd had announced that it is pursuing limited face-to-face classes, the “funds are still unavailable on the ground.”
Given this, ACT called for the swift mobilization of funds to free teachers of additional financial burdens of preparing their schools for limited face-to-face classes.
The group also demanded that service credits should be granted to teachers who were "compelled to come to schools even on rest days to fix the classrooms."
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https://mb.com.ph/2022/03/11/over-6k-schools-already-started-implementing-limited-face-to-face-classes-deped/