Senators advocate hiring more non-teaching staff

Senators on Thursday backed proposals for hiring additional non-teaching staff to help reduce the stress teachers experience as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chair of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture noted that many teachers are forced to accept a heavy workload due to a lack of manpower.

The senator pointed out that the Philippines still has the most compulsory teaching hours – six hours a day – than member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The solution, he said, should be to “take and create more positions”.

“Our teachers are assigned non-teaching responsibilities, which is why they exceed their six hours of work, even eight hours per year,” Gatchalian pointed out during the Senate hearing on the implementation of the Magna Carta for public school teachers.

According to the law, “any teacher engaging in classroom instruction is not required to perform more than six hours of actual classroom teaching per day.” The above law provides teachers with sufficient time for the preparation and correction of exercises which is part of their normal teaching duties.

Senator Maria Josefa Imelda Marcos agrees with Gatchalian saying she also supports the proposal to increase not only non-teaching clerical positions, but also cleaning, security and other duties.

Marcos said he will support an additional budget for that proposal.

Gatchalian had previously called for a revision of the Magna Carta for public school teachers following persistent concerns about teachers’ salaries and working conditions.

The senator stressed that 40 percent of the 27 provisions of the law are met and 60 percent are still partially or not satisfied.

He said the Department of Education (DepEd) should review its policies regarding teachers’ working hours, as well as the benefits that should be fully received by public school teachers such as special hardship allowance, risk allowance, medical supervision annual free and hospitalization among others.