THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers-Private Schools renewed its call for the passage of a Magna Carta for Private School Teachers as the group backed the bid of ACT Teachers Party-list for congressional seats.

“We never doubted the genuineness and the service of ACT Teachers Party-list as the most progressive representation of all Filipino teachers and education personnel both in public and private school system in the Philippine Congress. Time and time again, they never fail not only to promote quality education but also to prioritize the welfare of our education workers long manifested to its courageous fight for dignified and humane working conditions,” Dr. Jonathan Geronimo, Secretary-General of ACT Private Schools, said.

The party-list is led by three nominees — Rep. France Castro, Antonio Tinio and Dr. David Michael San Juan.

Private school personnel called for the immediate passage of The Magna Carta for Private School Teachers bill which was mainly authored and filed by the ACT Teachers Party-list in 2019.

“For decades now, public school teachers’ rights and welfare are protected and ensured through the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers. Private school teachers, however, do not have the same rights and protection,” the group said in a statement.

Some of the provisions of the bill include 7:3 ratio of full-time to part-time faculty in tertiary education to enable more part-time teachers to achieve full-time status, 6-month probationary period, clear, objective, and consultative evaluation of teaching performance for teacher’s easier promotion in basic education, academic freedom and humane and just teaching loads.

The measure aims to promote the health and economic status of education personnel in private schools through annual salary adjustment to mitigate the effects of inflation and provision of data packet allowance, sick leave, vacation leave, indefinite leave, emergency leave, study leave, and sabbatical leave.

“What may look basic privileges equates to a very tumultuous fight for us. Any of these won’t happen unless we have true representations in our parliament who will raise our demands and actualize them into laws,” Geronimo said.