DepEd urged to clarify 'mandatory' reporting of teachers to schools

A group of teachers and education workers urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to issue a clarification regarding numerous reports requiring teachers to report to schools.

In a letter dated Monday, March 7, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines wrote to Education Secretary Leonor Briones to seek clarification on numerous reports from various regions requiring 100 percent of teachers to report to schools eight hours daily while there are no students to teach in schools and internet capacity cannot sustain the teachers' needs.

ACT said that it has been receiving “numerous complaints” from the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Regions III, IV-A, Region VI, VII (Cebu province), and Region VIII that 100 percent of public school teachers are “now required to physically report to schools every day.”

For the group, this arrangement is “unjust, unsafe, impractical, and counter-productive” because “teachers have no students to teach in schools as more than 90 percent of our public schools remain closed and are still employing full remote learning modalities.”

ACT said that with this arrangement, teachers are required to stay in schools for eight hours --- which is even longer than the six hours teaching time they were required to stay in school before the pandemic.

The group also pointed out that the internet infrastructure of schools cannot support the internet connectivity requirements of all teachers.

“Thus teachers are forced to render overtime work as they have to perform their online duties when they return home after reporting to school,” ACT said.

ACT said that school facilities were “not sufficiently prepared” to receive 100 percent of the teacher population with ample implementation of minimum health standards.

“As such, we request for the Department to release a work arrangement policy for teachers that better suits the actual situation of each school and lets them perform their duties more effectively,” ACT said.

ACT also proposed to DepEd that teachers be given the option to report to school physically or work-from-home --- depending on how they can best perform their duties “safely and efficiently.”