Heavy paperwork forces teachers to work during vacation – ACT

MANILA, Philippines – A teachers group complained that the heavy paperwork they have to finish has made teachers work even during summer vacation.
Heavy paperwork forces teachers to work during vacation

Heavy paperwork forces teachers to work during vacation
Teachers miss out on summer vacation due to paperworks | Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Alliance of Concerned Teachers

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) has lamented that the Department of Education (DepEd)'s evaluation systems have caused teachers to miss out on their much deserved break.

The group said that the Results-based Performance Management System (RPMS) and the Philippine Professional Standard for Teachers (PPST) is “unnecessary and unjust.”

ACT teachers said that due to said evaluation systems, teachers are forced to render unpaid work beyond April 5, which was the last day of School Year 2018–2019. They urged the DepEd to stop its implementation immediately.

ACT National Chairperson Joselyn Martinez said, “Instead of enjoying the summer vacation, teachers are still reporting to their schools to finish the unnecessarily heavy paperwork demanded by the RPMS-PPST and to complete their IPCRF [Individual Performance Commitment and Review Form]”

“We of course will not be compensated for such by DepEd,” she added.

Martinez called the requirements “ridiculous” because it's as if the teachers are being asked to prove that they worked the entire year. The systems were allegedly made to “comply with a set of standards recommended” by the Asian Development Bank.

According to ACT, the RPMS-PPST framework and tools like the IPCRF that aims to measure teachers' performance and productivity are only geared towards “ensuring maximum profit at a minimum cost.”

DepEd, for their part, has insisted that such systems are “aimed at improving the quality of teaching and, therefore, of education in the country.”

Martinez lambasted this reason saying that it only shows that the education agency “fails to account the dismal and neglected state of public education in the Philippines, and puts the entire burden of providing quality education on teachers.”

ACT added that DepEd is only veering away from the alleged major reason of the declining quality of education, which is K to 12 program.

Martinez slammed the RPMS-PPST evaluation saying that it “misses the multiple other hats teachers are forced to wear due to staff shortage, which include that of medical workers, social workers, guidance counselor, clerk, janitor, security guard, and many others.”

Martinez said, “We care for these children like they are our own, and have dedicated our lives to ensuring that the youth gets a proper education despite very little support from the government. We deserve better than to be treated like this.”

— Sally, The Summit Express



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