Marcos Jr. lauds DepEd, cites gains under Sara

Marcos Jr. lauds DepEd, cites gains under Sara

MANILA, Philippines —  Despite having the “most difficult mandate,” the Department of Education (DepEd) has been able to set the stage for a “modern and responsive” educational system under its current leadership, President Marcos said yesterday.

In a speech during the presentation of the Basic Education Report 2024 in Pasay, Marcos acknowledged that while the goals in the education sector are hard to meet, he is optimistic that these would be achieved, judging from what the DepEd has accomplished so far.

“As your report has shown, the building blocks of a modern, responsive educational system have now been laid. It is something we have waited for for many, many, many years. At this juncture in our transformational journey, my instruction is simply this: Padayon! Padayon! Padayon! (Go on, go on, go on),” the President said.

“We are one in our dream to build a new Philippines, where we enjoy the opportunities of a modern, vibrant, and peaceful country. This can be fully realized if we continue transforming our education system—for the sake of our beloved children. I thus call on everyone to join us in this daunting but extremely rewarding endeavor,” he added.

Marcos described DepEd’s report as “candid,” “clear,” “comprehensive” and “quite compelling” and thanked Vice President and DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte for her leadership.

“Certainly milestones achieved so far deserve our congratulations. Daghang salamat (Thank you very much), Vice President Inday Sara, for your stewardship of the biggest agency, with the largest constituency, and, I would say, most difficult mandate,” the Chief Executive said.

Marcos also expressed confidence that the MATATAG education system would pave the way for a “more empowered, secure, and progressive future.”

“We are cognizant that VP (Vice President) Sara and the whole of the DepEd family are pulling out all the stops for the betterment of our basic education by focusing on ensuring our teachers’ teaching quality, competency, and well-being; improving our learners’ capacities and nutrition; [and] building better and more facilities to aid both teaching and learning,” he added.

Marcos welcomed the pilot of the new K to 10 curriculum in 35 schools, saying the curriculum is being decongested with a focus on the development of foundational skills. He expressed support for remedial initiatives like learning camps, implementation of the Catch-up Fridays program, development of learners who can barely read or write, and the procurement of information and communication technology equipment.

Projects awarded

Marcos added that the DepEd has awarded projects worth P11.7 billion while the administration awaits the passage of amendments to the procurement law.

“We should accelerate the building of more classrooms, laboratories, and schools. Despite institutional bottlenecks not of your making, the DepEd has already built and repaired thousands of classrooms last year, and I look forward to seeing more of these this year and in the years ahead,” he said.

Marcos also lauded the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for helping enhance the schools’ resilience to disasters.

“But it is not only buildings that must carry ‘do not delay’ signs. Books, furniture, other pedagogical tools must be stickered with ‘please expedite’ reminders,” he said..

Marcos also responded to those who doubt the government’s capability to fund the construction of classrooms.

“My standard response to those who clip our wings with their fears is: we use the mandate of the people to achieve the grand, not to waste it on the petty. We go big, or we go home,” he said.

Marcos noted that it is not just learners in classrooms who must be assessed but also the educational system.

“In fact, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard than those that we set for our children. We should give ourselves assignments harder than what we ask our learners to submit,” he said.

“We must subject ourselves to tougher diagnostic tools so we can use the results to make lesson plans that will help us meet our greatest obligation to our youth, to our people: to mold them into critical thinkers, into problem solvers, and brave visionaries and to ensure that they wield the skills that will allow them to succeed in the future.”

He reiterated the need to continuously train teachers, saying they are “not mere passive recipients or alienated implementers” but “incubators of ideas” and “innovators.”

Unburdened of admin tasks

Meanwhile, Duterte said teachers are set to be unburdened with administrative tasks, which she would officially announce in a Department Order.

“After holding several consultations with our field personnel, the Department Order on the Removal of Administrative Tasks for Teachers will be released tomorrow and the corresponding strand memorandum will be released next week,” Duterte said yesterday.

Teachers have been complaining about continuously being assigned administrative tasks despite various laws and policies that prohibit it, such as the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers and several other orders and memoranda of the DepEd on the deployment and assignment of public school teachers and guidelines on the working hours of public school teachers.

However, some schools have been forced to impose admin tasks on teachers because of the lack of administrative personnel.

To ensure the DO implementation is sustained, the Vice President said the DepEd would be hiring 5,000 administrative personnel this year.

“We’re afraid that it may not be implemented effectively that’s why crafting it took some time because we really followed the policy direction of removing all admin task and of course, those tasks need to go somewhere else,” DepEd Undersecretary Michael Poa told reporters on the sidelines of the BER presentation.

Poa said the DepEd would also be releasing next week an internal memo for DepEd personnel to guide school, division and regional heads as to where to relegate administrative tasks and whether there’s a need to hire more administrative support apart from the planned 5,000.

WB consultation

Furthermore, Duterte also bared that the DepEd is currently consulting the World Bank for a policy guide for lobbying for additional salary increases for teachers in the next Salary Standardization Law proposals before Congress.

Duterte also said the DepEd would be issuing a policy on overload pay for teachers, as well as overtime pay.

“We want to ensure that our teachers are rightfully compensated for hours of actual classroom teaching beyond the six-hour limit provided for under the Magna Carta for teachers,” Duterte said.

“Aside from overload pay, we also want to give overtime pay to our teachers. Historically, for non-teaching tasks performed outside their regular working hours, teachers are only compensated through service credits. In the next budget cycle, DepEd will be proposing a budget that will enable us to grant overtime pay to our teachers,” she said.