As it welcomed the latest policy issued by the Department of Education (DepEd) on payment of teaching overload, a group of education workers urged the government and the agency’s leadership to ensure full and sufficient funding for it.
“To ensure that these policy guidelines take full effect unlike other issuances and directives that do not materialize on the grounds, the national government and the DepEd must allocate substantial funds so all teachers receive due compensation for going above and beyond their normal teaching duties,” said Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines Chairperson Vladimer Quetua.
ACT was referring to DepEd Order No. 05, s. 2024 signed by Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte or the “Rationalization of Teachers’ Workload in Public Schools and Payment of Teaching Overload.”
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ACT welcomed the DepEd’s latest outlining policy guidelines for the rationalization of teachers' workload in public schools and payment of teaching overload.
For the group, this is a “product of the relentless fight of the union which brought to light the dire necessity for the agency’s recognition of teachers’ labor rights to humane workload and appropriate compensation and benefits for exceeding workload and work hours.”
Quetua said the policy is a “long overdue recognition of public school teachers’ labor rights to fair and equitable workload and proper compensation and benefits for teaching overload and extended work hours.”
While it is a “great feat,” Quetua said the national government and the DepEd “must work on ensuring that sufficient funding will be allocated for its full implementation.”
Aside from streamlining the teachers’ workload, the latest DepEd issuance outlined the payment of teaching overload for those who will exceed the prescribed number of hours.
The payment of teaching overload, DepEd said, will be made “every quarter” and subject to the “extent of allotment” for the purpose.
In the “case of insufficiency of funds,” DepEd said the teaching overload hours will be converted to earned Vacation Service Credits (VSC) provided under its existing policy.
In a message to reporters, DepEd Undersecretary Michael Poa explained that the payment of the teaching overload is “similar to the way overtime pay is computed” — even for those in the private sector.
“The 25 percent is additional compensation on top of a teacher’s regular remuneration,” Poa said. “For every hour of overload, for example, the teacher is paid 125 percent of his or her hourly rate,” he added.
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