Senator Sherwin "Win" Gatchalian urged the new administration to decongest the workload of public school teachers so they could focus on their teaching duties.
Gatchalian emphasized that decongesting teachers' workload affects the quality and delivery of education to the country's K to 12 learners. In 2019, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) pointed out that the actual teaching is sidelined by teachers' administrative and student support roles and their participation in programs like mass immunizations, deworming, and elections, among others.
One of the immediate steps that Gatchalian proposes is for the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to release funds for the 5,000 administrative officers in public elementary and high schools under the Department of Education (DepEd).
The senator said that there should be enough non-teaching personnel based on the school structure and staffing pattern in the long run, easing the burden imposed on teachers.
Gatchalian also urged the DepEd to adopt the proposal of PIDS to conduct evidence-based studies on teacher workload. This is to rationalize the job functions of public school teachers, allow them to balance their workload, and allocate more time to improve learner outcomes.
"Dapat tiyakin nating nailalaan ng mga guro ang mas maraming oras para tutukan ang kanilang mga mag-aaral (We must ensure that our teachers allocate most of their hours focused on their students)," Gatchalian stressed. "Mahalagang pagsikapan nating maalis na sa mga guro ang mga trabahong walang direktang kinalaman sa kanilang pagtuturo, lalo na’t ang makikinabang dito ay ang ating mga mag-aaral (We should strive to ease up on responsibilities which have nothing to do with their teaching, especially since the students stand to benefit from it)," he added.
