Senator Sonny Angara is pushing for the provision of living facilities for public school teachers, especially those who have to travel long distances to get to their schools.
“For years we have heard of stories of our teachers who have to travel far and oftentimes through rough terrain and even turbulent waters just to reach the schools where they teach,” the chair of the Senate finance committee said.
“This is the type of dedication to work that we must recognize and give proper attention to at all times,” Angara said.
“Not only is the travel to work very challenging, but also dangerous. We have teachers who need to ride boats to get to the schools situated in remote areas and sometimes these vessels capsize. This would not be an issue if they have the option of living within or near their schools,” Angara added.
Now with the Covid-19 pandemic where face-to-face classes are prohibited, many teachers still have to take perilous journeys to deliver the learning modules to their students in far flung areas, he said.
The senator noted that even city dwellers go through their own challenges with their daily commute to work where traffic congestion takes up so much of their time and energy, which could be better spent in the classrooms.
In a February 2019 report, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies took note of how public school teachers are chronically overworked as a result of their teaching duties and the multitude of nonteaching tasks that are given to them on a regular basis.
To address these issues being faced by our teachers, Angara filed Senate Bill 2317 or the Teachers’ Home in School Act, which seeks to provide public school teachers with “livable and humane” living facilities within the schools or at the nearest possible location to the schools where they teach.
Covered under the bill are public school teachers who are experiencing difficulty in commuting to their place of work or are deployed in public schools located in remote or isolated areas.
Angara pushes for living facilities for public school teachers in far-flung areas
