A GROUP warned on Monday that teachers face problems on finances, heavier workload and security as well as new challenges arising from the implementation of different learning methods.

On the celebration of World Teachers’ Day, E-Net Philippines President Flora Arellano said that teach-ers have been working tirelessly for months to prepare for the opening of classes. “They attended online training sessions, webinars, meetings, and produced modules and learning mate-rials,” she said.

E-Net Philippines is a network of 130 organizations advocating quality education.

“The teachers are being confronted with challenges that are new to them as the Education de-partment starts implementing learning methods in the New Normal,” Arellano said.

The biggest challenges confronting the teachers are money, technology, new methodology in teaching and security which are provided for in the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers but are not being implemented, she said.

Arrellano pointed out that teachers who hold online classes will have to pay for increased elec-tricity consumption, internet connection and gadgets. They also have to cope with technology which is new to them, including the use of hardware and software for online teaching.

Their workload has become heavier because they also have to produce modules, print them and dis-tribute them to students who could not attend online classes, exposing them to the risks of Covid19 infection.

Under the Magna Carta, teachers should be provided with a special hardship pay amounting to 25 per-cent of their salary.

“We believe that the government must allocate funds for these concerns. They can find ways of rea-ligning budgets for these needs – they already saved a lot from the closure of schools and offices due to lockdown and work-from-home schemes. They must, if we are to have an acces-sible, inclusive quality education,” Arellano said.