A MILITANT teachers’ group found the bicam-approved education allotment under the Bayanihan to Recover as One  bill or Bayanihan 2 extremely sparse, considering the overwhelming demands of education amid the Covid19 pandemic.

As the Alliance of Concerned Teachers hit the allocation breakdown of the P165-billion measure, it called on both chambers of the Congress to address education’s funding needs through a supplemental budget.

“BARO’s meager four-billion education provision can only cover the P1,500 per month internet allowance demand for 900,000 public school teachers from October to December. How much more the health measures that need to be instituted before October 5? Or the tech needs of teachers and learners, especially as it’s turning out that even the modular approach entails the use of online platforms for monitoring and feedbacking,” said Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general.

As early as May, the teachers’ federation of unions have urged the Department of Education to conduct testing on suspected and vulnerable cases among its personnel.

With the BARO’s P25.5 billion standby funds, the group pushed that teaching and non-teaching staff be finally and urgently tested for Covid19 as education frontliners.

“Weeks leading up to October 5, more and more teachers will add to DepEd personnel who report on-site, hence health screening and testing shall immediately be done. We expect that DepEd, along with other relevant agencies, has already started preps to facilitate this and the eventual tapping of the BARO funds for such as soon as it takes effect,” Basilio said.

ACT also urged the lower house and the Senate to pass a supplemental budget to address the many shortages in resources, which the group argued ‘factored greatly’ in the two-time postponement of school opening.

“The government’s failure to establish measures for school safety and accessible quality education has already forced us into delaying class resumption twice and prolonged denial of the youth’s right to education. We strongly urge the state to not let the remaining time before October 5 go to waste, heed our pressing demands,” Basilio ended.