{"id":10315,"date":"2020-10-04T13:38:54","date_gmt":"2020-10-04T05:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/?p=10315"},"modified":"2020-10-04T13:40:46","modified_gmt":"2020-10-04T05:40:46","slug":"world-teachers-day-2020-ph-govt-must-step-up-to-ensure-filipino-teachers-welfare-and-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/world-teachers-day-2020-ph-govt-must-step-up-to-ensure-filipino-teachers-welfare-and-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"World Teacher\u2019s Day 2020: PH gov\u2019t must step up to ensure Filipino teachers\u2019 welfare and safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

As National Teacher\u2019s Month culminates with the celebration of\nWorld Teacher\u2019s Day on October 5th<\/sup>, the Educators\u2019 Forum for\nDevelopment (EfD) urges the Duterte administration to deliver all necessary\nsupport to public and private Filipino educators in the basic and higher\neducation sectors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Educators play an important role in\nteaching future generations to become society builders. They are now challenged\n\u2013 even burdened \u2013 to  uphold this role\nhowever amid a raging pandemic that has prompted schools to implement distance\nlearning. Over 700 private schools have been unable to cope and have had to\nsuspend operations. More than 100,000 private school teachers and employees\nhave reportedly been retrenched because of low enrolment rates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Education (DepEd) must acknowledge the threat\nposed by the pandemic on the physical and mental health of teachers and other\nschool personnel, as well as the impact of the economic crisis on their\nlivelihood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six months into the quarantine period however, no clear guidelines\nhave been drawn as to how education would continue with the entire education\nsector\u2019s safety ensured. Private schools have already begun online classes as\nearly as July, while public schools are opening the school year on October 5. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically for our teachers and other education personnel, have\nthe schools put in place the standard health infrastructure to guarantee the\nsafety of those who will be required to report physically? Will teachers \u2013\nespecially in small private schools \u2013 who lost their jobs because of the\npandemic \u2013 be assisted and given alternative sources of income? Were the\ntrainings and simulations adequate to fully equip teachers for the demands of\ndistance learning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Various teachers\u2019 groups themselves would answer \u201cno\u201d to these\nbasic questions. Still, the DepEd has insisted that it is confidently prepared\nfor the new school year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Filipino teachers won\u2019t take such confidence from education\nofficials if not enough is being done to secure their welfare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If ever, the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act can only provide\none-time cash assistance to teaching and non-teaching personnel of public and\nprivate schools who have lost their jobs during the quarantine. This stands in\ncontrast to demands by the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Private Schools\nfor cash assistance of Php10,000 for three months, or a Php15,000 wage subsidy\nfor 12 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law also states the realignment of DepEd\u2019s unused appropriations for its \u201cSupport to Schools and Learners Program\u201d, which includes the hiring of teacher-assistants that DepEd recently said may come from the ranks of displaced private school teachers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is token adulation of the sacrifices of Filipino educators. Our teachers and education staff \u2013 and Philippine education in general \u2013 deserve a better response. The government can better honor their work by delivering on the sector\u2019s long-standing demands and immediate calls. These should be integral in the overall effort to solve the country\u2019s current health and socioeconomic woes. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As National Teacher\u2019s Month culminates with the celebration of World Teacher\u2019s Day on October 5th, the Educators\u2019 Forum for Development (EfD) urges the Duterte administration to deliver all necessary support to public and private Filipino educators in the basic and higher education sectors. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":10317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-withbanner.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[1,2048,547,961],"tags":[2199,318,1695,156,1543],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10315"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10318,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10315\/revisions\/10318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}