THE militant Alliance of Concerned Teachers lauded the Department of Education-National Capital Region for ordering on August 26 the implementation of health measures following the virtual dialogue between the office and the ACT-NCR Union on August 21.

The ACT pressed the DepEd central office to ‘keep up’ and issue an order addressing all the concerns of its employees in all DepEd schools and offices.

“After some dialogues, our Metro Manila union finally clinched [DepEd-NCR Regional Director Malcolm] Garma’s commitment to ensure its personnel’s safety back-to-work. The August 26 regional memo reflected significant preventive measures we’ve long called for—such as health screening by medical personnel, provision of PPEs, constant health monitoring, and the establishment or setting up of school clinics. These are important gains made possible by the union’s efforts and DepEd-NCR’s dutiful heeding of teachers’ demands. This shall be emulated by the Central Office in the spirit of protecting education workers’ welfare,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said in a statement.

Basilio, however, noted the regional memorandum’s inadequacies such as the echoing of the central office’s flagrant refusal to conduct mass testing as well as the absence of sick leave benefits for teachers, hiring of school nurses, and full medical treatment subsidy.

ACT NCR Union began its school-to-school monitoring of the implementation of health protocols on September 1 as teachers were set to return to schools. ACT encouraged teachers and staff across the country to monitor and report on the state of preventive mechanisms in their workplaces, as the group insist on the national office’s protection for all its personnel.

ACT said that the cooperation between the regional office and union is vital in the protection of employees’ welfare.

“In the last few days, Secretary Briones sought for some ‘inspiration’ amid this trying time. We urge her to look no further than in the very region where her office stands. We believe the entire DepEd workforce deserves the same protection from the agency, hence we strongly urge Secretary Briones to face us so these may be discussed. After all, we’re the ones at the frontlines of education, and as major stakeholders, education officials are mandated to listen to and act on our concerns and demands,” Basilio said.

Especially with the coming budget deliberation, ACT emphasized the need to strengthen the fight for sufficient resource allocation to education.

“DepEd must see that our criticisms and demands are in line with the objective of ensuring education safety, accessibility, and quality. We implore them to meet with us immediately and join the growing clamor demanding the Duterte administration to prioritize education, especially amid the pandemic,” Basilio said.