‘Added burden’ for teachers decried
A militant lawmaker strongly opposed the Department of Education (DEPED) order to teachers to produce learning materials for online and blended learning.
ACT Teacher Party-list Representative France Castro stressed this is additional burden to the teachers circumventing Republic Act No. 8047 or the “Book Publishing Industry Development Act”
“Teachers have been more overworked and underpaid with the blended distance learning program of the Department of Education amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” Castro said.
She said teachers, even before the official start of the school year, have been burdened with producing, printing and distributing learning materials to their students with the additional requirements of the blended distance learning.
According to Castro, public school teachers have been carrying the weight of making their own learning materials for their classes with little to no support from the DEPED.
“The DEPED could have eased the burden from the teachers from the production of textbooks or learning materials if only it followed RA 8047 or the Book Publishing Industry Development Act,” she said.
The lady solon stressed that it is DEPED’s responsibility to provide the curriculum, monitor and validate the content of available learning materials and textbooks and guide publishers of the content of learning materials.
“Sa panahon ng pandemya, ibinigay pa rin ng DepEd ang responsibilidad sa pag buo ng learning materials, pag-print nito at distribution sa teacher. Napakabigat na gawain na ipinasa na naman sa overworked na teacher na kulang na kulang rin ang suporta na ibinibigay ng gobyerno sa usapin ng internet allowance, gadgets at sapat na sahod para sa trabaho na kanilang ginugugol sa pagseserbisyo,” Castro lamented.
“It is not surprising that there are errors in the learning materials used by our pupils if the DEPED continues to focus on the mass production of modules instead of monitoring and validating the content of available materials. Teachers should not be blamed for these errors of the administration that continues to abandon education,” Castro said.
