ESTIMATES show that 53 teaching days were lost in the school year (SY) 2023-2024 due to nonteaching tasks and activities assigned to teachers on top of the school closures due to calamities and local holidays. This is based on the preliminary findings of a study conducted by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).
Teaching days, or contact time, refer to the time teachers and students spend interacting. Of the estimated 53 teaching days, 32 days are affected by the high heat index and other calamities. During these days, schools must use alternative delivery modes like modular and online learning.
The Second Congressional Commission on Education has further inquired about the steps being taken by the agency in relation to the statistics.
Second Congressional Commission on Education Co-Chairman Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian stresses the need to find strategies that will lessen teachers' workloads. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
In January 2024, the Department of Education (DepEd) released DepEd Order 002, s. 2024, or the Immediate Removal of Administrative Tasks of Teachers, which prohibits schools from including administrative tasks such as personnel and records management, financial management and property custodianship, among others into the workload of teachers.
Under the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers, a teacher is required to teach six hours of actual classroom teaching in a day. DepEd will also have to classify the related tasks to be included in the remaining two hours of the workday.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian has also filed the Revised Magna Carta for Public School Teachers' to help improve teachers' working conditions. One of the proposed measure's provisions is the prohibition on assigning nonteaching tasks to teachers.
