Overburdened teachers under an overwhelmed DepEd: Takeaways from Edcom 2 Year One Report

Oped Template Joseph Noel M. Estrada

THE Second Congressional Commission on Education, or Edcom 2, celebrated its first anniversary on Jan. 23, 2024 after it was formally organized and convened as mandated by Republic Act (RA) 11899. Personally, I am also celebrating my first year in Edcom 2 since joining the commission as its chief legal officer after my managing director duties with the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations, the organization widely recognized as the voice of private education in the country.

It may be recalled that Edcom 2 was convened in 2022 soon after the results of the 2018 Program for International Students Assessment came out which showed the poor performance of the Philippines. The reconvening of the education commission was also pushed even more by the growing learning crisis brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

On occasion of its first year, Edcom 2 released its Year One Report entitled “Miseducation, the Failed System of Philippine Education,” which shows the extent of the challenges that the nation faces on education. Diagnosing the extent of the problem and its root causes is critical in the remaining two years of the duration of the commission as it provides proposals for innovative and targeted policy reforms in the Philippine education system.

One of the priority areas showcased in the Edcom 2 report was on teacher development and welfare. As the commission found, teachers’ contribution to better learner outcomes, particularly in the public school system, is not maximized because of the heavy burden they carry of administrative and ancillary tasks.

According to the Year One Report, teachers continue to be burdened by 50 nonteaching or administrative tasks, based on the Department of Education’s (DepEd) inventory. While administrative officers have been hired (5,000 per year starting in 2020), the impact remains limited. This is aggravated by the uneven allocation of support staff across schools, with some having more than 500 teachers and only four nonteaching personnel.

The report also emphasized how teacher work demands, including administrative responsibilities and community service, pose substantial challenges. These demands consume significant amounts of time that could otherwise be dedicated to classroom teaching. Echoing a study conducted by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, the report states that public school teachers typically spend more than eight hours daily, or 40 hours a week, fulfilling their functions due to additional paperwork and ancillary tasks.

While the nonteaching administrative duties of teachers were passed on to them by virtue of related laws, department orders and other administrative issuances, these additional tasks are not consistent with the Magna Carta of Public School Teachers under RA 4670, which proscribes teaching duties beyond six hours per day. And while additional compensation is given to those who are performing ancillary tasks, the impact on the quality of teaching and its contribution to compounding learning deficits of students cannot be overemphasized.

Teacher welfare and development is a priority that the Edcom 2 cannot afford to miss in reforming our education system if we are to prioritize challenges that hinder quality education and better student performance.

As of this writing, various media outlets report that Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte has announced that administrative tasks will be removed from teachers’ duties so they can focus on teaching. A DepEd order is supposed to be issued for this directive on Jan. 26, 2024.

But aside from teachers overburdened with ancillary tasks, Edcom 2 also found that the DepEd itself is overwhelmed with tasks outside of its original mandate under RA 9155 to provide access to quality, compulsory and free basic education in the country, which have been overstretched by legislation, administrative issuances and agreements since its enactment in 2001. These resulted in at least 68 interagency bodies which the DepEd is either a member of or an ex-officio chair to, including several councils, commissions, committees and advisory bodies. This is in addition to the DepEd’s responsibility of meeting regional as well as international commitments, such as Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization regional centers; various working groups of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations; and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

The considerable time, effort and resources devoted just to attend to all these interagency bodies is the same precious time, attention and resources taken away from the governance of our basic education sector.

The challenges faced by DepEd of loyalty to its mandate, commitment to continuity of education reforms and coordination with higher education and technical-vocational education sectors are now lodged in the able hands of Edcom 2 as it tackles a long list of priorities of problems to fix.

The Edcom 2 Year One Report is now available for download at https://edcom2.gov.ph.

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I am excited to announce that registration for the first meeting of The Legal Mind Executive Sessions happening on Feb. 23, 2024 is still open. The Legal Mind Executive Sessions is an in-person learning platform designed for school leaders and executives to help them navigate through the complexities of the policy environment in education. You may visit https://legalmind.estradaaquino.com/ for registration and other details.

The author regularly holds The Legal Mind Executive Sessions for teachers and school administrators. Email [email protected].