SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian on Saturday urged the Marcos administration to let public school teachers focus on teaching duties by decongesting their workload.

The senator explained too much workload for teachers affects the quality and delivery of education to the country’s K to 12 learners.

Gatchalian cited the statement by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies in 2019 pointing out that actual teaching is sidelined by other administrative and student support roles of teachers, as well as their participation in programs like mass immunizations, deworming, and elections, among others, which affect the quality of their instruction.

One of the immediate steps Gatchalian proposes is for the Department of Budget and Management to release funds for the 5,000 administrative officers in public elementary and high schools under the Department of Education.

In the long run, there should be enough non-teaching personnel based on the school structure and staffing pattern, which the DepEd Bureau of Human Resource and Organizational Development is expected to study and develop with the Research Center for Teacher Quality.

Gatchalian also urged the DepEd to adopt the proposal of PIDS to conduct evidence-based studies on teacher workload.

This is to rationalize the job functions of public school teachers, allow them to balance their workload, and allocate more of their time to improve learner outcomes.

“Sa pagtataguyod ng kapakanan ng ating mga guro, dapat tiyakin nating nailalaan nila ang mas maraming oras para tutukan ang kanilang mga mag-aaral. Mahalagang pagsikapan nating maalis na sa mga guro ang mga trabahong walang direktang kinalaman sa kanilang pagtuturo, lalo na’t ang makikinabang dito ay ang ating mga mag-aaral,”Gatchalian.