ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro on Friday expressed relief that the teacher who scolded her students online was only reprimanded and not sanctioned by the Department of Education.

“Alam naman natin na napakabigat ng working conditions ng mga guro sa ngayon at namomoroblema pa sila sa liit ng sahod, sa laki ng class size, mga hinahabol na urgent reports at dagdag na mga administrative at ancilliary tasks, kaya minsan ay napupuno na din talaga ang mga guro pero dapat ay sa mas maayos na paraan ito nailalabas,” Castro said.

“Dapat dagdagan na rin talaga ng guidance councilors at psychologist sa mga paaralan at maglunsad ng mental health activites para di nagkakaroon ng outbursts o mental breakdown ang mga guro, estudyante at iba pang mga nasa paaralan,” she added.

Aside from these, Castro is also calling on the House leadership to expedite the passage of a substitute bill that consolidates different proposals seeking to protect teachers and instructors from wrongful accusations of child abuse which was already approved at the committee level in May last year but is yet to be scheduled for plenary discussions up until now.

“We have been filing the Teachers Protection Bill since the 16th Congress, so when I chaired the technical working group we made sure that when returned to the mother committee it would speedily be passed by the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture chaired by Cong Roman Romulo,” she added.

“We hope that we can pass the House version after the Lenten break and our colleagues in the Senate can also expedite their version so that this bill will finally become a law and serve as a layer of protection for our teachers,” Castro stressed.