Senator Sherwin Gatchalian urged the Marcos administration Saturday, July 16 to decongest the workload of public school teachers so they could focus on their teaching duties.
Gatchalian emphasized that decongesting the workload of teachers will have an effect on the quality and delivery of education to the country’s K to 12 learners.
In 2019, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) pointed out that actual teaching is sidelined by other administrative and student support roles of teachers, as well as their participation in programs like mass immunizations, deworming, and elections, among others.
Gatchalian, who won a fresh mandate in the May 2022 polls, was the chairman of the Senate Basic Education Committee in the previous 18th Congress.
The 19th Congress opens on July 25.
One of the immediate steps that Gatchalian proposed was for the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to release funds for the 5,000 Administrative Officers (AO) in public elementary and high schools under the Department of Education (DepEd). The department has already requested the release of these funds.
In the long run, there should be enough non-teaching personnel based on the school structure and staffing pattern, which the DepEd Bureau of Human Resource and Organizational Development (BHROD) is expected to study and develop with the Research Center for Teacher Quality (RCTQ).
Gatchalian said the DepEd should adopt the proposal of PIDS to conduct evidence-based studies on teacher workload. This is to rationalize the job functions of public school teachers, allow them to balance their workload, and allocate more of their time to improve learner outcomes.
The proposed study on teacher workload is one of Gatchalian's top three recommendations when he reported the basic education panel's findings on the implementation of the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers (Republic Act No. 4670).
"Sa pagtataguyod ng kapakanan ng ating mga guro, dapat tiyakin nating nailalaan nila ang mas maraming oras para tutukan ang kanilang mga mag-aaral (In consideration of the welfare of our teachers, we should ensure that they spend most of their time focusing on their students). Mahalagang pagsikapan nating maalis na sa mga guro ang mga trabahong walang direktang kinalaman sa kanilang pagtuturo, lalo na’t ang makikinabang dito ay ang ating mga mag-aara (It is important that we decongest the workload of public school teachers of tasks that are not directly related to their teaching job, especially since it's the students who will benefit from this),” Gatchalian said.