THE 2nd Congressional Commission on Education or EDCOM 2 expressed concern over the preliminary findings of the study conducted by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies or PIDS that showed 53 teaching days were lost in the School Year 2023-2024.

This is due to non-teaching tasks and activities assigned to them on top of the school closures due to calamities and local holidays.

The PIDS assessed the MATATAG K to 10 pilot implementation in 35 schools.

“Based on their recall of the past year, public school teachers who participated in the survey missed an average of 25 teaching days between September 2023 and March 2024,” PIDS Senior Fellow Dr. Mike Abrigo said.

“Actual teaching days are lost because of student off-class activities such as competitions and school celebrations, non-teaching tasks such workshops, training, and other administrative tasks, and school closures due to conflict and typhoons,” added Dr. Abrigo.

Teaching days, or contact time, refer to the time teachers and students spend interacting.

Of the estimated 53 teaching days, 32 days are affected by the high heat index and other calamities.

Based on the data gathered by PIDS, 53 days is already equivalent to almost 3 months’ worth of teaching.

This is concerning because it accounts for up to 30% of the 180 days of contact time for teaching historically required based on DepEd Order Nos. 23 s. 2016 and 25 s. 2017.

“This means that even if we keep decongesting the curriculum if there is no opportunity or actual days to teach the students, there is very limited time to absorb the lessons,” laments EDCOM 2 Executive Director Karol Mark Yee.