"Let teachers teach, let teachers be teachers! - Teachers' Group

A teachers' group on Saturday released a response to the proposed Senate Bill of Senator Angara to establish Teacher Education for Achievers (TEACH) program to improve the quality of teachers in the Philippines.

ACT NCR Union Chairperson Vladimer Quetua stressed that in order to provide quality education to our learners, one of the best things to do is to lessen the paperworks given to the public school teachers so they can focus more on their "actual job" which is "to teach".

“If we want to raise the quality of education rendered by our teachers, then stop the unnecessary paperwork. Let teachers teach! Let teachers be teachers!" said Quetea.

The said group also made a media release dated August 14, 2021 to better address the issue.

Here is the full text of the said release:

ACT NCR Union to Senator Angara: Teachers are not the culprit of dismal PH education

The ACT NCR Union today assailed Senate Bill 2312 proposed by Senator Sonny Angara which claimed to establish Teacher Education for Achievers (TEACH) program to improve the quality of teachers in the Philippines, stating that the root problem of our education system is definitely not among the teachers.

“On the contrary, we already have the best public school teachers. In fact many of them have been continuously recruited abroad for much better teaching opportunities. While this is an unfortunate proof of “brain drain”, it is a clear indication that our public school teachers are globally competitive, exemplary and topnotch,” ACT NCR Union Chairperson Vladimer Quetua said. 

Quetua emphasized the rigorous process that public school teachers undergo before being certified as a government teacher. Pre-service teachers need to study four years in a university, and afterwards they need to take and pass the Licensure Examination for Teachers or LET. After getting their license, they again need to undergo a very tedious process in applying to become a public school teacher. Aspiring public school teachers may only be included in the Registry of Qualified Applicants (RQA) if they are able to achieve at least 70% rating, a grade that is not easy to attain. 

“In short, public school teachers undergo at least two sets of intensive selection process. And once in the system, public school teachers are still expected to pursue continuing professional education, often at their personal expense. In total, a public school teacher has been spending at least twenty years studying and mastering the craft. It is therefore a huge insult for public school teachers to be indirectly blamed for this educational crisis that we are currently having,” Quetua said. 

Quetua maintained that in order to solve the perennial problems in the Philippine education system, the government should provide its existing roster of teachers the decent salary and just working conditions they rightfully deserve.

“During his 2016 campaign, President Rodrigo Duterte promised to raise the salary of teachers. But until now that his term is about to end, we have not received any news about the promised increase. We felt like we’ve been fooled all along with his empty campaign promises!” Quetua criticized.

Meanwhile, the ACT NCR Union supports the ACT TEACHERS Party list’s proposal seeking to raise the entry level wage of public school teachers to Salary Grade 15 or P33,575. Currently, the said proposal remains on First Reading at the committee level and has no counterpart bill in the Senate yet. 

“If the government really wants quality education, we need quality budget. And it can only be achieved if we give the highest budgetary allocation to education,” Quetua stressed.

Quetua also called out the worsening working conditions in the Department of Education. He said that teachers are being required to do time-consuming but unnecessary paperwork that do not have direct impact to teaching- learning process. Some of these include narrative reports, accomplishment reports, and many others.

“If we want to raise the quality of education rendered by our teachers, then stop the unnecessary paperwork. Let teachers teach! Let teachers be teachers!” Quetua ended. #

MEDIA RELEASE

August 14, 2021

Contact Person: VLADIMER QUETUA

Chairperson, ACT NCR Union

Courtesy: ACT NCR Union

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