Senator Sonny Angara is now seeking the passage of a bill that would establish living facilities for public school teachers to help them cope with the worsening traffic congestion and the difficulty in getting public transportation.
Angara, in filing Senate Bill No. 1169, or the proposed “Teachers’ Home in School Act”, said it is high-time the government solves the problem of public school teachers whenever they commute or are deployed in schools that are part of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) last mile schools program.
“In February 2019, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) reported the chronically overworked state of public school teachers in the country as they are not only teaching the students but they are also given multitude of nonteaching tasks,” Angara said in the explanatory note of the bill.
“The worsening traffic congestion also contributes to the burden of the teachers as majority of them rely on public transportation to get to school,” he further said.
Citing ThoughtCo, a premier reference site on education content based in New York, Angara said a teacher who loses as little as five minutes of instructional minutes per day due to inefficiencies wastes 15 hours of opportunity over the course of a 180-day school year.
“In order to provide all the learning opportunities to all Filipino learners and provide remedial interventions to students who are lagging behind while ensuring the safety and promoting the rights of our public school teachers, this bill mandates the DepEd and the Department of Public and Works Highways (DPWH) to construct living facilities for public school teachers who spend long hours of commuting every day just to report to work or who are deployed in the last mile schools away from their families.
“The living facilities shall be constructed within the public schools or at the nearest
possible location of the public schools,” Angara stressed.
The senator also noted that prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, majority of Filipino learners have struggled to have access to quality education due to so many issues and concerns, like lack of school buildings and classrooms, undersupported, overworked and underpaid teachers, large class sizes and inadequate budget for the national education system.
While the DepEd has exerted numerous efforts and programs to address these challenges, he pointed out the agency has failed to exert the same amount of attention in solving the plight of public school teachers.
“Given the noble objectives of this measure, the passage of this bill is earnestly sought,” he said.