A MILITANT teachers’ group has denounced what it called ‘harsh and inhuman’ decision of the Department of Education to forgo the job renewal of thousands of provisional teachers in Regions 1, 4-A, 7 and 12 and in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The group has also asked the education officials at the DepEd Central Office to investigate reports that their officers in the regional offices are threatening teachers with arbitrary transfer if they failed to meet a 100 percent enrollment turnout for the SY 2020-2021.

In a complaint filed with the DepEd on July 23, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers argued that “the dismissal of provisional teachers and the threat of displacement for flimsy excuse are inhumane and contrary to the urgent need for more teachers who would implement the agency’s basic education learning continuity plan (BE-LCP) amid the still uncontained coronavirus pandemic.”

“These are the latest of the DepEd’s string of deplorable moves as we face the Covid19 pandemic and the insecurity of the government’s failed response has caused on people’s lives, live-lihood and rights. Adding now to the record-high unemployment stats are thousands of provisional teachers who were laid off in violation of RA 10533, and amid shortages in teachers who are tasked to deliver DepEd’s BE-LCP,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said.

The ACT said that “Section 8 (a) of RA 10533 or the act that overhauled the Philippine basic education system and introduced the K to 12 curriculum allows teachers to render service up to five years pending their passage of the Licensure Exam for Teachers. However, those who were recently dismissed by DepEd have only been in service for three years.”

On the other hand, the transfer of teachers who cannot meet their enrollment quota is violative of Section 6 of RA 4670, or the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers, according to the ACT.

“DepEd’s total disregard for teachers’ welfare and rights is appalling. After failing to ensure our safety throughout the school opening preps and evading institutional accountability, it is now arbitrarily leaving several teachers out of jobs or displaced. Ibang klaseng kalupitan ito ng DepEd, they just keep outdoing themselves in this regard,” Basilio lamented.

The group offered an unsolicited advice for the DepEd to exert best efforts, instead, towards strengthening the education system whose weaknesses were severely exposed during the health and economic crisis.

“Education’s frontliners are the teachers and staff and currently we don’t have enough to meet the mounting demands of the service in the midst of the pandemic. It’s only reasonable and just that these provisional teachers be reinstated, and more teachers be hired to optimize our learning machinery. DepEd can start by absorbing retrenched private school teachers, while also fulfilling the requisites to enable current teachers to perform their work,” Basilio said.