March 27, 2023 – The suggestions of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) for the Department of Education to hire 30,000 public teachers and allocate a budget of P100 billion per year for classrooms are obviously deceptive maneuvers deliberately designed to counter the Marcos administration’s solution to the problems hounding the education sector.

The call could not be coming from a place of genuine concern for the future of our learners and the welfare of our teachers. Instead, it is a call motivated by the group’s fascination for demands and goals that are unrealistic and impossible — placing the government in a precarious situation that will ultimately end in failure.

The timing also betrayed ACT Teachers’ true intentions.

The call came at the height of the NPA-initiated violence in six towns of Masbate that affected over 55,199 learners and 2,815 school personnel.

ACT Teachers, while silent about the NPA operations, apparently needed to come up with something outrageous to divert the public’s attention away from the damage that the NPA attacks caused to our Masbate learners.

For the information of the public, the Department intends to continue hiring additional teaching and non-teaching personnel this year. DepEd is also set to deploy more administrative officers in schools to complement its workforce and ultimately reduce the administrative tasks of teachers.

Instead of solely focusing on archaic and ineffective solutions, we will also tap into available technology to address current challenges.

These form part of the reforms that we will implement to ensure the effective delivery of basic education to Filipino learners and champion teachers’ welfare.

The Marcos administration will not be pressured, hoodwinked, or distracted by groups like ACT Teachers.

Our objective is to eliminate elements that contribute to learning losses, effectively implement reforms, and exercise fiscal responsibility by using resources wisely through innovations and mechanisms that will improve learning.

Nice try, ACT Teachers.

 

 

SARA Z. DUTERTE

Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines

Secretary of the Department of Education