ACT Philippines · @actph1982
29th May 2014 from TwitLonger
PRESS STATEMENT May 29, 2014 Teachers to DepEd: Do not circumvent the situation; stop covering the shortages in the public education!
Pasig City, Philippines – Teachers from Muntinlupa Division and Alliance of Concerned Teachers today trooped to the main office of the Department of Education to denounce the unnumbered memorandum of the education department on the discontinuance of hiring of locally-paid public school teachers.
“Despite the looming shortage of teachers in the public school teachers, this memorandum will only further the problems caused by insufficiency of public school teachers. Further, these teachers should have been prioritized in the hiring of nationally-paid teachers as mandated by the General Appropriations Act (GAA). Instead of being hired, they are abruptly dismissed from service,” said Ms. Joselyn Martinez, ACT National Vice-Chair.
Last March 20, 2014, the Department of Education released DepEd Unnumbered Memorandum on the “Discontinuation of the Hiring of LGU-funded and Kindergarten Volunteer Teachers and Reminder to Hire Only Qualified LGU-funded and DepEd-subsidized Teachers as of 2012 for 2014-2015” which prohibits the hiring of new LGU-paid teachers for School Year 2014-2015.
“Although the memo is intended for new applicants, DepEd officials are implementing this also for currently hired LGU-paid teachers. In the case of the National Capital Region, 83 teachers in Muntinlupa will be affected by this. They will no longer be hired we are also verifying reports from Bacolod and other divisions... This is a form of blatant disregard to their years of service and sacrifice with meager pay,” added Ms. Martinez.
“This is also part of the grand plan of the DepEd and of BS Aquino’s administration to create an artificial condition that there is no shortage of teachers in the public schools. Under this nonsense plan, teaching loads like class advisory, coaching and other administrative work in the computation of teaching load are excluded. Aside from this, the average class size is still far from ideal (at 45 students in the elementary level and at 50 students in the secondary level). Other schemes to hide the shortage such as division of classrooms into two, 3-day class week and four class shifts in a day are also to be implemented. With this mechanism, the number of needed teachers, classrooms and other facilities and equipment are reduced.
We call on the DepEd leadership and to BS Aquino himself to be truthful and face the problems of public education accordingly. These schemes will not solve the problem at all. What they need to do is simple and basic – add permanent items for teachers, construct additional classrooms and facilities and quit from making cheap gimmickry and rhetoric” ended Ms. Martinez.
For Reference: Joselyn Martinez
National Vice Chair
Alliance of Concerned Teachers
09993549879