The celebration of 2022 National Teachers’ Month (NTM) formally started on Monday, Sept. 5, the Department of Education (DepEd) announced.
With the theme, “Gurong Pilipino, Dangal ng Sambayanang Pilipino,” DepEd said in a Facebook post that the month-long celebration aims to honor the greatness and dedication of teachers in helping Filipino youth to reach their dreams.
DepEd also announced that the NTM kick-off celebration will be led by the Schools Division of Davao Del Norte on Sept. 6, 2022
The country started its celebration of the NTM per Proclamation No. 242, series of 2011. The 2022 NTM will culminate on Oct. 5 which is also the National Teachers’ Day (NTD) and World Teachers’ Day (WTD) celebration.
Meanwhile, hundreds of public school teachers trooped to the House of Representatives on Sept. 5 to lobby for salary upgrading, safe school reopening, and a doubling of the education budget for 2023.
“The state of education is best reflected in the conditions of our teachers as they bear all the problems of the education system,” said Alliance Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines chairperson Vladimer Quetua.
“For education to recover from the learning crisis, uplifting the conditions of our teachers is core and essential,” he added.
Quetua pointed out that the situation of Filipino teachers “has never been harder” with their salaries long left behind by those of other professionals; workload “getting heavier by the day” without additional compensation, and receiving “very scant support” from the government for their teaching needs.
“Our situation of being overworked, underpaid and under supported is a major roadblock to education recovery,” Quetua said.
While teachers are the “lifeline” of education, Quetua said that “we, ourselves, are on the verge of breaking down.”
The salaries of teachers, he said, cannot “amply support” their families while they are also “forced” to spend their own money for their teaching and classroom needs.
“We have been denied our right to ample rest with the DepEd’s incessant overtime work demands, and our teaching and non-teaching workload this school year is really excessive,” he said.
“If the government wants the learning gaps to be addressed, it needs to alleviate us from this terrible situation,” he added.