DepEd urged to release schedule guidelines, reduce teachers’ workload

MANILA – A teachers’ group on Tuesday urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to release the guidelines on their work schedule and to reduce the workload of educators given the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) in a statement said teachers are experiencing “extreme exhaustion due to heavier workload and longer hours” under the distance learning scheme.

Teachers have to adjust and learn new education delivery modalities and relay these to both parents and students, the group said.

Aside from this, teachers are also required to study about the revised basic education curriculum, produce self-learning modules, and attend multiple daily webinars, ACT said.

“Hence, we demand that DepEd urgently issue guidelines on work schedule and reduce teachers’ load in response to additional time and effort demanded by remote learning,” ACT said in a statement.

“There really should be safety nets in place, to avoid draining our teachers,” the group added. Teachers have also complained that they are taking care of more students than before while attending to “feedback sessions” with parents, ACT said.

The DepEd has yet to respond to the group’s plea.

Distance learning will be implemented by the DepEd once classes open on Oct. 5 as an alternative to face-to-face classes. In-person classes remain prohibited due to the threat of COVID-19.

Under the said scheme, teachers and students will make use of either printed learning modules, online instruction, television and radio broadcast or a combination of such methods for the education delivery.