Teachers call for more time allotment for lesson preparations, teaching-related duties

One week to World Teachers’ Day, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines demanded for the easing of public school teachers’ workload, citing that theirs is the heaviest compared to the workload of teachers in local private schools or public universities, and their counterparts in neighboring countries. The group called for giving public school teachers sufficient time to prepare their lessons, check outputs, compute grades and monitor the progress of their students so that quality teaching can be delivered and education recovery be realized.

“The Department of Education (DepEd) has maxed up all public school teachers with 6 hours daily teaching and administrative duties, with others even given workload that exceeds six hours. Katumbas po ito ng 30 oras ng pagtuturo sa loob ng isang linggo, kung kaya sobra na ang pagod at paos ng ating mga guro sa isang buwan pa lamang na pagtuturo. Labis-labis po ang trabahong ito kumpara sa trabaho ng mga guro sa private schools, state colleges and universities at maging mga paaralan sa ibang bansa,” asserted Ruby Bernardo, ACT Spokesperson.

ACT said that weekly teaching load of teachers in De La Salle Zobel High School, University of Santo Tomas Senior High School and Xavier High School only amounts to 10 to 12 hours, while another 10 to 12 hours is allotted for meetings, seminars and consultations. In the University of the Philippines, faculty members teach for 12 hours weekly, while those in Polytechnic University of the Philippines has 15 hours weekly of regular teaching load. Basic education teachers in neighboring countries teach for less hours weekly, as in Japan and Australia (22 to 24 hours), Vienam (13 hours), Cambodia (25 hours), Indonesia (18 hours).

“Non-stop teaching for six hours daily is simply inhumane. It is equivalent to 6 to 9 classes handled daily for 40 minutes to one hour class time, depending on the subject taught. Dapat i-konsidera rin na ang mga klaseng ito ay bumibilang mula 45 hanggang 60 estudyante o higit pa. Sobrang piga na sa pagod ang ating mga guro pagkatapos ng maghapon na pagtuturo, at ang nalalabing dalawang oras ng trabaho sa isang araw ay napupunta pa paggawa ng mga reports at non-teaching duties,” lamented Bernardo.

“In reality, lesson preparation, checking of outputs and grade computation are brought home and done beyond work hours without proper compensation, while this should not be case as these are integral duties of a teacher. Malaking panahon pa ang ginugugol ng mga guro sa lesson preparation dahil hindi na pwede ngayon ang chalk-talk lamang kundi kailangan ng mga visual presentations at iba’t ibang class activities. Mahabang oras din ang kailangan para mag-check ng output dahil malaki ang mga klase. At the end of the day, it is our teachers’ physical and mental well-being which is sacrificed,” explained Bernardo.

The 1967 Magna Carta for Public School Teachers provides for a maximum six hours of teaching time per day while the remaining two hours of eight-hour work should be devoted to lesson preparation and other teaching-related duties.

“Instead of easing our workload, the DepEd is wielding the Magna Carta to squeeze us to the hilt. Instead of recognizing the 6-hour rule as the maximum limit, they have deemed it as the teachers’ regular load. It is their way to make it appear that there are excess teachers in some schools that they can transfer to others wherein shortage is really flagrant,” hit Bernardo.

“Overworking our teachers is counterproductive to education recovery. We need less teaching and non-teaching load. We need more time to prepare our lessons and fulfil other teaching-related duties to be able to deliver quality teaching. We need our rightful time to rest. If we want the quality of teaching to improve, we need to reduce to four hours the daily time allotment for actual teaching, while the other four hours should be used for lesson preparations and other teaching-related duties,” urged Bernardo.

ACT Teachers Partylist has filed in the 19th Congress House Bill 545 to amend the 55-year old Magna Carta for Public School Teachers, which included in its provisions the reduction of public school teachers’ teaching time to four hours daily.

Source: Alliance of Concerned Teachers-Philippines
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