Grievances
A teacher at the Commonwealth Elementary School who prefers not to be named shared, “Teaching school children is tough enough but the distressing working condition and issues are too much too handle.”
The Department of Education (DepED) issued Memorandum No. 291 last June 13 instructing public school teachers “to fully utilize the six hour actual classroom teaching time.” This means that a teacher must spend six hours facilitating classes. This, however, according to ACT, prevents them from doing other things their job requires like writing lesson plans and preparing instructional materials.
According to the same memorandum, teachers are not exempted from the eight-hour working time. Thus, the remaining two hours should be spent for activities “within or outside school premises to comply with the eight-hour workday.” But based on the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers, teachers are to spend “not more than six hours” for actual classroom teaching, says ACT.
Another issue confronting teachers is overloading that is an “inevitable consequence of the shortage of teachers.” Those with additional load should be given 25 percent of their monthly salary. But, according to ACT, the additional pay is not at all given. Aside from overloading, a teacher has to handle 60 to 70 students in a class while the international standard of class size is only 25.
