Normalize Duty

Loud cry of plea for the amendment of Magna Carta for Public School Teachers
resonates in Senate as this will relieve the constant despair of an educator from
shouldering non-teaching responsibilities especially that the new education set-up
demands for more strenuous job; printing, packing, and sorting of modules.

Alarming news burst as the Philippines was reported to be the number one
country in the world with most annual teaching hours with a logged 1,218 hours while
the counterparts in Europe recorded less than 700 hours. This outraging figure only
speaks out the overburdened work that the teachers have been facing.

Chorus of rejoices are anticipated to be heard as the Magna Carta for Public
School Teachers that will prompt the government to allocate more funds to hire more
teaching personnel was currently brawled in Senate. Section 13 of Republic Act 4670
states that teachers shall not be required to render more than six teaching hours a day.

Situating it into account of Laguna Senior High School, as the enrollment soars to
more than 2,000—inevitable insufficiency of teaching workforce brought the new face of
challenge. With a dire need of 21 teachers, full or over loaded teaching hours has
already weighed on their shoulder.

Likewise, school administration tapped Local Government Unit assistance to

have Local School Board additional personnel. Students’ learning was also distressed in
the long anticipation of teacher deployment as there are still some subjects without an
attending teacher.

Such education’s setback of the inadequacy of teachers surge across the nation
despite the availability of budget along with the questioned P1.9B unliquidated fund and
purchased service vehicle. Still, teachers and learners have been longing to be
prioritized of the budget allocation as they are the main core of education.

As the root word of teacher represent their duty to “teach”—nothing more and
nothing less; the Department should take an immediate action in amending the Magna
Carta for Public School teachers. It is time to deploy more personnel and teachers as it
is not just a long-awaited plea, but a normal stipulation that some school never had.