Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte said during the Aklan’s Ten Outstanding Mentors (ATOM) Awarding Ceremonies that the Department of Education (DepEd) will focus on the growth of students, benefits for teachers, and rehabilitation and reconstruction of schools under her term.
“Tututukan natin ang mga teachers, learners, at ang ating school infrastructures (We will focus on teachers, learners, and our school infrastructures),” Sara said.
Duterte likewise announced DepEd and Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) have an ongoing commitment to a monthly update on the deliverables for the implementation of benefits for the teaching and non-teaching staff.
She then added DepEd is currently reaching out to the Department of Health (DOH) to ensure that the agency’s employees enjoy free health checkups.
“Pangalawa, ay ang pakikipag-usap namin sa Department of Health, to which they are very welcoming and truly receptive about, is ang pagtanggal ng gastos ng checkup ng mga teachers sa kanilang P5,000 na allowance (Second, is our conversation with the Department of Health in which they are very welcoming and truly receptive, is the removal of the cost of teachers' checkup from their P5,000 allowance),” she added.
“Pinapakiusapan po namin at patuloy ang pakikipag diyalogo namin sa Department of Health na gawing libre ang checkup ng teachers (We are asking and continuing our dialogue with the Department of Health to make the teachers' checkup free),” Sara continued.
Duterte also said the DepEd is also reaching out to the Office of the President to provide additional benefits to the teaching and non-teaching staff of the Department of Education.
Additionally, the agency is said to be reviewing the K to 10 and Grades 11 to 12 curriculums to “ensure that graduates are immediately employable by sectors and industries.”
In 2019, local employers in the Philippines said the sector was still hesitant to employ K-12 graduates, as the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) conducted research and found that 22 out of 26 companies surveyed thought graduates “lack adequate preparedness for employment.”
“Lagi po nating sinasabi na ang mandatory lang po ay ang basic education. ‘Yung mga learners na nasa atin sa Department of Education, dapat pag-graduate nila, kapag hindi na sila tumuloy sa higher education, ay pwede na silang magtrabaho (We always say that the only mandatory is basic education. "The learners we have in the Department of Education, they must graduate, when they no longer continue to higher education, they can now work),” Sara said.
