CAGAYAN de Oro 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez is pushing for a measure reducing the class hours of public school teachers.

In his House Bill 7822, Rodriguez is seeking to limit the class hours of public school teachers from eight hours to six hours.

The chairman of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments explained the bill aims to promote the welfare of public school teachers and to raise the quality of basic education in the Philippines.

Rodriguez explained the need to modify the class hours of teachers to give them enough time to prepare lesson plans and instructional materials, interact with students during co-curricular activities, and perform other jobs that may be assigned by the principal or superior.

“Their work site is not limited to the classroom. Teachers perform a regular eight-hour work shift just like any average laborer. Six hours of that shift may be spent in the lecture hall, and two hours are spent in lesson-plan preparation, lecture planning, and student-parent consultations,” Rodriguez said.

“We commend the outstanding innovative programs implemented by Vice President and DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte in her first year in office. She has always been a true advocate of quality education for learners and in promoting the overall welfare of the teachers. We are confident that we have her support on this measure,” he added.

Based on the information from the Department of Education, there are 876,642 public school teachers in basic education, meaning the national teacher-to-learner ratio for elementary is 1:27; 1:24 in junior high school; and 1:27 in senior high school, with over 28 million students enrolled in School Year 2021-2022.