Senator Sherwin "Win" Gatchalian urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to integrate digitalization as part of its efforts to alleviate teachers’ workload and relieve them of non-teaching tasks.

Gatchalian made this call during a meeting with the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II), the DepEd, and other education and government stakeholders.

The meeting focused on DepEd Order No. 2 series of 2024, which ordered the removal of administrative tasks for public school teachers

“The unburdening of our teachers goes hand in hand with digitalization. You cannot do one without the other. I suggest including digitalization in DepEd’s move to unburden teachers,” said Gatchalian, co-chairperson of EDCOM II.

“Let’s include it in the plan, how much do you need? What is the roadmap? So that every teacher will just use their laptop, input the data, and all reports come out automatically. It’s also for analysis, I know it takes time to analyze data at the central level,” Gatchalian told DepEd Officer-In-Charge of the Office of the Undersecretary for Human Resource and Organizational Development Wilfredo Cabral.

The DepEd official told Gatchalian that the agency had begun harmonizing all existing information systems. Cabral added that the automation of reports was in the pipeline and that the agency sought to make the data more accessible while maintaining a high level of security.

In the report Miseducation: The Failed System of Philippine Education, the EDCOM II flagged that public school teachers continue to perform more than 50 administrative and ancillary tasks.

Gatchalian also shared the experience of Valenzuela City. In 2022, the city distributed laptops installed with #VCGuroAkoApp, an online portal for easier accomplishment of teacher tasks, including the uploading and sharing of documents and the generation of reports.

The senator has filed measures aimed at accelerating digitalization in the basic education sector. One of these is the Digital Transformation in Basic Education Act (Senate Bill No. 383).

Aside from strengthening the use of information and communications technology for learning and teaching, the proposed measure also mandates the DepEd to digitally streamline its workflows and processes.