Work Overload: Better hire more teachers and non-teaching personnel

In public schools, there is a need to hire more teachers because not all schools have a complete number of teachers and non-teaching personnel, which may cause them to work overload and have lots of ancillaries. These issues are long-standing complaints among public school teachers that already affect their concentration during teaching. These are undoubtedly among the primary concerns of teachers.

Due to a lack of non-teaching personnel, many teachers have to perform other chores that are completely unrelated to their jobs, resulting in fatigue and burn-out on their part that somehow also affect the quality of their teaching. Fully aware of their predicament, presidential frontrunner Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. plans to expand the number of non-teaching personnel in public schools to address the situation.

He said one way to maintain high-quality education in public schools is to reduce the non-teaching loads of teachers. Based on studies, many public school teachers have ancillary duties that don’t match their specialties or expertise. For example, some teachers also act as librarians or even property custodians. Others are acting as nurses, canteen in-charge, or even athletic heads, he said.

Marcos said he wanted to change this unproductive system by filling the void in every public school and increasing the number of non-teaching personnel, to relieve the teachers from being overburdened with work. The Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) standard-bearer said adding non-teaching staff would give teachers more time to prepare for their lessons and focus only on what subjects they were assigned.

“Matagal nang dinadaing ng ating mga guro ang ganitong Sistema, ‘yung additional work, ‘yung non-teaching loads, panahon na para baguhin at matagpuan ito, so paano? “ In that case, we can ease the work of the teachers, mabibigyan natin sila ng mahabang oras na makapag handa, makapag-prepare ng mga lessons  sa kung anong subject  na ituturo nila, kung minsan kasi yung mga guro natin, teacher na sila nagiging librarian, nurse din sila, may nababalitaan  pa tayo na may mga nagbabantay pa ng canteen.”

Marcos also said reducing the extra burden of teachers would also protect their mental health which was obviously affected during this pandemic. “Nitong pandemic nakita natin kung paano ‘yung nagging adjustment ng mga guro, kahanga-hanga naman talaga,pero hindi natin maitatanggi na marami sa mga guro dati nang nahihirapan sa mga gawain, marami ang nai-stress, nadi-depress at labis na naapektuhan ‘yung kanilang mental health.

In his previous pronouncements, Marcos said he plans to revisit the Department of Education (DepEd) K-12 program, aside from that he wanted to do is also to increase the teacher’s salary and provide appropriate benefits for them. The former senator is also planning to hire more teachers on permanent status. “Siyempre, mag-hire pa tayo ng mas maraming permanent teachers, kulang talaga tayo sa mga guro, pero ang pagkaka-alam ko naman yearly ito ginagawa ng DepEd, pabilisan siguro natin ‘yung application nila para mapunan yung kakulangan natin sa mga guro, “he said.

Presumptive President Bongbong Marcos is the only hope to pay attention to the teachers’ voices. These problems in every public school require attention to end the long-term misery of teachers. Due to the busiest period of the day, many teachers aren’t able to comb their hair. Why are some teachers so busy all of the time? Teachers performed the principals’ work because some principals assigned their tasks to their teachers. The principal’s work has a significant impact on the teachers. The only solution to lessen the work overload of teachers is to create more items so that the school can hire more teachers and non-teaching personnel.

Each school should hire more teachers and non-teaching staff to assist teachers. Teachers’ physical and mental health can be affected by stress. Without rest, their health can quickly worsen. Work overload can cause depression and premature death in our highly qualified teachers. Teachers are merely followers who carry out their bosses’ orders; whatever work they are given, they execute it with humility. So, aid teachers not only during this pandemic but also in the future.

Teaching will be more successful if schools hire more teachers. Work overload for teachers is also to be resolved. So the Department of Education should create more items, especially for schools that have not received attention in recent years. Several schools, especially secondary and senior high schools, lacked enough teachers to educate their students. Many schools tried to request new items so that they could hire more teachers, but there were none available.

Therefore, this is a concerning circumstance in which the new DepEd Secretary, VP Sarah Duterte, will hear this complaint. For all public school teachers, the change in the system is extremely important so that the schools can add or hire more teachers to overcome this work overload.

Teachers expect that the distribution of items in each school is equitable so that they can hire more teachers, regardless of the proximity or relationship between the supervisor or principal and the person in charge of the item in the Division Office. Only in the Philippines will someone close to your heart be given an item. Every school has already experienced this. Some schools provided too many items for new teachers, preventing them from being overworked.

Other schools with large enrollments, on the other hand, do not receive additional teachers despite their requests. As a result, their teachers have been on work overload for years since they continued to request items, but the person in charge did not listen to them and distributed the items anyhow.

Teachers believe that the Department of Education’s system should be altered so that their personal interests should be avoided. Every school must be closely monitored to determine what the school’s needs are. Furthermore, teachers also propose that a DepEd hotline similar to 888 be established online to address immediate concerns. The teachers and principals of underserved schools want their views heard to hire more teachers so that the many years of suffering caused by work overload can be rectified for the school year 2022–2023. – Doki | Helpline PH