THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers appealed to the Department of Education to aid teachers who were greatly affected by the recent typhoons.

The group said that teachers and other staff who were hit by calamities will have a bleak Christmas.

“Their salaries and 14th month pay have all gone to the replacement of damaged teaching and learning resources and repair of their homes. Panawagan namin sa Department of Education: Lingunin nyo naman ang mga guro at kawani na nagdurusa dahil sa iyong kapabayaan,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said.

ACT, in a letter to DepEd, submitted its 5-point demands to bring immediate relief to education stakeholders in calamity areas in Regions II, III, National Capital Region, IV-A, IV-B and V.

Basilio said that teachers and employees in calamity areas who were interviewed during the group’s relief operations lamented that what the DepEd offered them were access to loans from the agency’s provident fund and private lending institutions.

“The DepEd well knows that our employees have long been deep in debt, the laptops and printers that were damaged by the typhoons were acquired through loans. More loans would only aggravate instead of alleviate their economic sufferings, what they need is financial aid of no less than P10,000 to at least help them replace lost properties and repair their homes,” Basilio said.

He criticized DepEd’s failure to immediately replace damaged teaching and learning materials in calamity-stricken areas.

“It’s like a recurring nightmare for our teachers to be asking again for ink and bond paper donations and spending their own money to reprint learning modules, all while electricity supply is not yet restored and they too were victims who need to rebuild their lives. Grabeng pasakit ito sa ating mga guro at kawani,” Basilio said.