Gov't urged to initiate urgent reforms for education recovery
While the return to full face-to-face classes will help bridge the learning gaps, a group of education workers urged the government to implement immediate reforms to ensure education recovery amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
For the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines, the resumption of 100 percent in-person classes are not enough to address the learning crisis in the country.
ACT alleged that with the “refusal” of the Department of Education (DepED) to veer away from the set competencies of the K to 12 curriculum and adjust it to more realistic targets, “teachers are now strained to achieve the impossible task of essentially teaching the lessons for three grade levels, to compensate for the losses in the two years of distance learning.”
This, ACT Chairperson Vladimer Quetua said, is in “no way the correct road to education recovery.”
“Kailangan ng mga agaran at malalaking pagbabago sa edukasyon para hindi masayang ang school year na ito, at hindi makadagdag pa sa learning crisis (Immediate and major changes in education are needed so that this school year is not wasted and does not add to the learning crisis),” Quetua explained.
Given this, ACT urged the government to develop “concrete and long-term plans and solutions” to resolve the 167,000 shortage in classrooms, as well as in facilities and learning resources.
The government, ACT said, should employ 147,000 new teachers to lower the class size to 35 learners. Each school should also employ a nurse, guidance counselor, property custodian, librarian, security guard, and registrar to “free teachers” of ancillary duties, the group noted.
ACT is also urging the DepED to reduce the workload of teachers, lowering the required teaching time to four hours a day to make enough time for lesson preparation and other teaching-related tasks, and do away with excessive paper works and reports.
The group is also calling on the government to upgrade the teachers’ salaries to Salary Grade 15 for Teacher 1 as well as the “grant of ample and timely benefits” which will include the provision and laptop and internet support to teachers.
“Sound and effective education recovery program based on an objective assessment of the current proficiency of learners; overhaul the K-12 program to decongest the curriculum and focus on the fundamentals,” ACT added.