THE Teachers Dignity Coalition asked the Department of Education for more clarity and preparation to implement the policy that seeks to remove the administrative tasks of public school teachers.

“While we appreciate the gesture of the DepEd and the intent to remove administrative tasks from our teachers, we foresee that its implementation will be challenging,” Benjo Basas, the group’s national chairperson, said.

During the Basic Education Report on January 25, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte announced the removal of administrative tasks from teachers and the issuance of an order for this purpose. DepEd Order No. 2, s. 2024, released a day later, mandates the transfer of all administrative tasks from teachers to school heads or principals and non-teaching personnel.

The TDC acknowledged the order and thanked the DepEd for the clear intent of the order. However, the group also urged Duterte to ensure its implementation on the ground.

“According to the DepEd report, there are only 10,000 non-teaching personnel hired for 2023 and 2024; this is not enough even if we deploy one personnel per school, considering that we have more than 47,000 public schools nationwide,” Basas added.

The group also requests further clarification on the order and a list of tasks that classroom teachers will not handle. The order specifies six main functions that teachers will no longer handle, such as personnel administration, property custodianship, general administrative support, finance, records, and program management.

“While the definition of administrative tasks is clear as well as those that may be categorized into any of the six functions, we still want to make sure that field and school officials will not subject this to their personal interpretation or prerogative,” Basas explained.

The TDC includes the removal of administrative tasks for teachers in their 13-Point Teachers’ Dignity Agenda, as the group believes that these tasks take precious time away from teachers and thus hinder the delivery of quality education. Instead, the group recommends hiring additional personnel to support the smooth operation of the school, allowing teachers to focus on teaching.

“The hiring of other personnel should be based on the needs of the schools. We may need to boost our school operation by hiring much-needed guidance counselors, school health workers, librarians, property custodians, security personnel, utility workers, and other staff to completely free our teachers from non-teaching-related tasks,” Basas said.

The group also highlights that the school system still needs more teachers and expresses concern that the order may justify increasing the maximum teaching load to six hours, which is the limit established by the law. If that happens, many teachers will be declared excess and transferred to another school and DepEd will not hire additional teaching staff.

“This order may lead to a heavier teaching load for our teachers. Previously, the average contact time was only five hours; now it might be extended to six hours of straight teaching. We have to take note that the teachers’ work is not limited to the classroom; beyond classroom work, the related tasks are heavier, such as preparation of lessons, checking of exercises, assessment, and other tasks we do beyond our time at school,” Basas said.

The TDC also urged the DepEd to reduce paperwork and other tasks of teachers, such as narrative reports, complicated performance assessments, irrelevant meetings and seminars, and cumbersome lesson preparation, among others.