World Teachers’ Day Commemoration 2023
Filipino Teachers, stand for higher salary, education and rights!
Fight for nationalistic, progressive and free education!
Today, as we commemorate the anniversary of the UNESCO declaration of the World Teachers’ Day, Filipino Teachers stand firm for salary, education and rights. Further, we continue our fight for a nationalist, progressive and free education.
For decades, we believe that generations of Filipino teachers are yet to experience the fulfillment of a working and living condition that is humane, properly compensated and valued.
It is undeniable that Filipino educators and education workers situation is dreadful and infuriating.
With this, teachers are resonating their demands.
We demand to end the worsening neo-liberal and continuing denationalization of educational system. We are amplifying our call to Junk K-12, conduct an evidence-based assessment that would enable a nationalist, scientific and mass-oriented education curriculum.
For decades, Philippine Educational system has become a tool that served to maintain the status quo favoring the elite sector of the Philippine Society and foreign large-scale, profit-oriented entities.
The educational system under the mandates of dominant economic entities such as the World Bank, burdens the teachers in bringing outcomes that have no significant and direct effect to the nation’s economic and political development.
This year, a recalibrated Matatag curriculum for basic education is launched under the enhanced basic education curriculum or K to 12. This is patterned after the long-term economic development vision which aims to further the labor export policy (LEP) that adheres to producing cheap and docile graduates.
It should be reiterated that a truly relevant and responsive curriculum should aim to develop teachers and produce graduates who can contribute to nation-building, addressing the specific needs of the Filipino people such as food security, growth of small and medium enterprises, utilization of science and technology for agricultural development, and establishment of essential national industries that benefit the general population rather than solely profit-oriented capitalist entities. This in turn will create local employment and will ease out the need for exporting our graduates for overseas employment.
We demand an end to the worsening neglect to the state of education and corruption
In the past five years, the education sector receives only an average of 3.32% share in the gross domestic product of the country which is just a little more than half of the supposed 6% global standard set by UNESCO. This year, an allotment is set at 3.51% or P832 billion share in GDP and by next year a 3.23% or P904 billion share is currently proposed in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2024.
In 2024, the Department of Education has a proposed allocation of P758 billion which will not address the massive perennial shortages in basic education facilities particularly for the construction of new classrooms, repairs of the old and damaged classrooms and other facilities, procurement of chairs and desks and learning tools and equipment which amounts to P900 billion as per ACT study.
In the tertiary level the State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) will experience a budget cut of almost P7 billion in 2024. With the NEP being pushed for approval in the congress, a budget amounting to only 100Billion will be divided to all SUCs.
On top of the budget cut, the government is proposing the closure of some SUCs that threatens the right of the Filipino youth to access free tertiary education and the teachers’ and education workers’ security of tenure. Governments’ responsibility to education sector will be all the more passed to profit oriented education institutions which will benefit the government funds intended for education grants through voucher system.
Further, after the pandemic, around 21,000 thousand small private schools were closed which resulted in loss of jobs for almost 250,000 education workers. The government did not provide subsidies for small and medium private schools for jump start the continuation of their operations while channeling bulk of voucher funds to big and profit oriented private educational institutions whose workforce remain contractual.
Meanwhile, the governments’ overspending in non-essential expenditures become more and more imeldific. The Marcos Jr-Duterte’s travel and leisure extravaganza and confidential fund spree are continuously being flagged for malversation and corruption
It is just and necessary to allocate higher education funding from basic to higher education. The perennial education problems should be given high priorities. Moreover, the anomalous confidential and intelligence fund spending should be urgently stopped and CIF funds should be rechanneled to basic services like education sector. While the Vice President spent the staggering 125 million in just 11 days, our teachers are always pushed to the walls — trying their best to make both ends meet and to address many of the classrooms’ needs.
We demand to end the worsening economic and political situation of education workers
Today, teachers and other education workers in the Philippines are among the professionals with the most burdensome responsibility. There are more than 800,000 public school teachers, not less than 300,000 private school teachers and not less than 60,000 SUC instructors and technical-vocational trainers.
Public and private school teachers in the basic and higher education level are taking on more than the required workloads by attending to teaching and ancillary tasks due to the government’s failure to hire enough education support personnel and create new teaching positions to unload teachers of tasks.
Amid being overworked, generally, education workers continue to receive monthly compensation below the P33,000 family living wage and all the more, lesser than P42,000 monthly cost of living as computed by the National Economic Development Authority.
Teachers’ benefits are not substantial. It is detrimental that today, the Magna Carta for Public Schools remains on paper. Teachers from private institutions are even more vulnerable to exploitation since the Magna Carta for Private schools remained unenacted.
Thus, a 50,0000 entry-level pay for all teachers and a 33,000 minimum pay for all education workers are a must in order to uplift their economic standing. In addition, teachers’ benefits should be improved according to their actual needs and work performed.
We demand to end the worsening fascism and state terrorism in education. Uphold academic freedom and teachers’ right to association.
In response to the outraging calls of teachers to address education problems and calls for salary increase, additional benefits and better working conditions, the Marcos-Duterte Regime is continually implementing repressive policies that directly affect and hinders the free exercise of teachers’ academic freedom, right to association and collective negotiation and other freedoms.
Red-tagging of leaders and legitimate unions who are consistently exposing the regimes’ anti-teacher schemes is continuing. Local leaders under ACT face harassment and intimidation especially those leaders under unions with on-going Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA) negotiations and ratification. CNA negotiations of ACT Regional Unions are blocked and are purposefully delayed by DepEd and thus further denying teachers additional privileges and benefits as mandated by the Executive Order №180.
Instead of addressing the chronic crises experienced by the education system, the Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration is militarizing DepEd. In July this year, the 2 former high-ranking officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were appointed as undersecretary and assistance undersecretary respectively.
This was followed by the designation of VP Sara Duterte as co-vice chair of the notorious human rights violator NTF-ELCAC.
VP Sara is very happy and proud of her designation and seems to be not mindful that she is currently heading the biggest civilian agency in the entire bureaucracy. In her more than a year of tenure as DepEd Secretary, she failed to address the woes of education and instead acted more like a dictator and not a teacher. Their appointments threaten the democratic rights of our teachers and will not and anyway help in our efforts to address the continuing education crisis.
It is with great dismay that under the Matatag Curriculum, nationalism and patriotism are being bannered and yet the teachers are unlawfully prohibited to discuss the true essence of nationalism as their academic freedom and all other freedoms are hampered.
The department of education secretary should end its involvement in any agency that hinders academic freedom and teacher’s rights. The DepEd should be demilitarized and should focus in addressing the recurring problems that pulls down the education sector and increases the learning poverty.
Militancy and undying fervor for the true legacy of world teachers’ day
The infuriating situation of the Filipino teachers is just a product of the existing problematic educational system carried on from regime to regime. The neo-liberal and elitist education pedagogy bannered by the Marcos Jr-Duterte administration has mainly affected the teachers and Filipino children and youth. With the multitude of problems and challenges that confronts the education sector, it is just proper that the Filipino teachers commemorate this year’s World Teachers Day thru protest actions. There is nothing to celebrate but there is so much the administration is accountable for.
To address teachers’ pitiful state through concerts is a big insult! Teachers’ demand for living and decent wage, better and timely benefits and human working conditions are legitimate demands that deserve tangible programs. Negligence of the government’s responsibility to attend to the basic rights and welfare of the education workers calls for continuous and even more intensified protests
With great pride, Filipino teachers are not weathered by the recurring challenges continually impeding their basic rights and the achievement of their basic interests as molders of the next generation. Counting on to the triumphs and unwavering unity and solidarity of all teachers around the world in their fight for rights, welfare and salary increase.###
