As the new school year begins, the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) has raised concerns about the Department of Education’s (DepEd) new directives, DepEd Order No. 5, s. 2024, and DepEd Order No. 10, s. 2024. These orders affect teachers’ workload under the MATATAG curriculum. The TDC had already asked DepEd for explanations and a discussion before the end of the 2023-2024 school year.
“Even though we have been patient and willing to wait, we now want to clear up several matters related to this issue, especially with the start of classes today,” Basas wrote in his letter to Secretary Angara yesterday.
Urgent Concerns
Basas highlighted several urgent issues with DepEd Order No. 5, s. 2024, which is about rationalizing teachers’ workload and paying for extra teaching work:
- Extended Teaching Hours: Teachers are required to teach for six hours without breaks, often handling 7-8 sections. This neglects their physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
- Additional Teaching Loads: Teachers are assigned extra classes from different grade levels to meet the six-hour teaching requirement.
- Risk of Transfer: Some teachers might be declared excess and moved to other schools, violating Section 6 of the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers.
“These issues come from the part of the order that says teachers are ‘required to render six-hour actual classroom teaching,'” Basas explained. According to him, this deviates from the Magna Carta provision that says teachers should not be required to teach more than six hours a day. The Magna Carta, or RA 4670, was created to protect teachers’ rights and welfare and has faced many challenges since it was approved 58 years ago. In 2008, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) ordered DepEd to create guidelines ensuring teachers would only stay in school for six hours, with no more than six hours of actual classroom teaching.
“However, the noble intent of this law has often been blatantly ignored,” Basas exclaimed. “It seems they don’t understand the challenges of teaching seven to eight sections, especially when packed into a six-hour period,” he continued.
Policy Concerns and Legislative Action
“We initially thought that DO No. 5, s. 2024, would support this advocacy, but it appears we were wrong. This policy, which promises overtime pay, has turned into a tool for further exploiting our teachers, causing overwork, anxiety, stress, and demoralization,” Basas concluded.
A bill filed by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian aims to amend the working hours provision of the law and reduce it to not more than four hours of classroom teaching. This bill is currently pending before the Senate.
Call for Dialogue
The TDC remains determined in its campaign for the full and correct implementation of the Magna Carta. They are calling for an immediate suspension of the new policies and requesting a dialogue with Secretary Sonny Angara to address these urgent issues.
