A group on Monday, April 25, urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to clarify the tasks of teachers who were expected to report to their respective schools during the scheduled school break for national election-related activities.
“One week to go bago (before) mag-May 2. Wala pa ring paglilinaw ang DepEd (There is still no clarification from DepEd),” said Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) Chairperson Benjo Basas.
He claimed that DepEd’s announcement created confusion among teachers and school heads alike, with the latter forced to comply with the directive to be on the “safe” side.
DepEd, in a Facebook post on April 18, announced that classes in public schools will be suspended from May 2 to 13 for national election-related activities.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2022/04/18/walangpasok-deped-suspends-classes-in-public-schools-from-may-2-to-13/
In the said post, DepEd said that teachers are still expected to report to their respective schools when there are no activities related to the elections.
TDC noted that there are some school officials in the field that have “ordered their teachers to report to school during the election break” as confirmed by the comments in their public posts.
“That advisory from DepEd with its poster and caption say that teachers who do not have election-related duties will still need to report to schools on those days, while the school calendar declared them as election break,” Basas said.
The school calendar, Basas said, is contained in the DepEd Order No. 29, s. 2021 issued in August 2021 which prescribed the number of school days, the specific dates of class suspensions, and schedules of school activities for the entire school year 2021 to 2022.