THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers criticized the Department of Education after it received numerous reports from teachers that they are still obligated to physically report to school even after the DepEd school year calendar ended on June 24.

“The Department of Education is using its questionable Deped Memorandum 43 series of 2022, issued last May 10 to justify this new form of forced labor,” Vladimer Quetua, the group’s chairperson, said.

“This memo essentially extended work for teachers for them to report to school. It disregards the teachers’ need for rightful rest and the reason they are giving would not pass as an exigency of service,” he added.

Quetua said that based on Republic Act 1180, there is no violation of the law if the school days are not extended because the law itself mandated the maximum school days at 220 and did not set a minimum. Also, the law extended the maximum number of school days from 200 to 220 to have buffer days in case of emergencies which DepEd wrongly uses as the justification for extending the teachers’ work days.

“There are also 209 school days this school year. Even if we deduct the 12 maximum days of class cancellation during the health break, there were still 198 class days that teachers think have been sufficient to meet the learning objectives given that they already did the necessary interventions. So as it is there is no need for an extension of school days,” he said.

Quetua argued that June 24 is the last day of class based on the DepEd calendar and teachers should enjoy their break after the set date.

“Teachers should already be having their school break, as their proportional vacation pay has always been computed based on the DepEd’s official school calendar,” he said.

“If the DepEd is to insist that there is exigency of service, there should be an order approved by the division that teachers are required to report and there should be additional compensation or service credit for them,” he added.