AS SCHOOL Year 2025–2026 begins, the ACT Teachers Party-List on Monday launched its annual ‘Bisita-Eskwela’ initiative.

ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, alongside Representative-elect Antonio Tinio, led a series of school visits to investigate and document the persistent problems plaguing the public education system.

The initiative aims to consult directly with school administrators, teachers, staff, and students to expose the realities on the ground.

The lawmakers will look into long-standing issues such as severe classroom and teacher shortages, student congestion, multiple shifting schedules, and the problematic implementation of blended learning.

“We launched ‘Bisita-Eskwela’ to see for ourselves the harsh realities our teachers and students face daily—realities often glossed over by the DepEd’s rosy reports. We need to expose the severe congestion, the lack of classrooms, and the exhausting shifting schedules that are the direct result of state neglect,” Castro said.

Representative-elect Antonio Tinio emphasized that the findings will be crucial in shaping their legislative work in the upcoming 20th Congress.

“These school visits are a crucial part of our legislative work. The findings from ‘Bisita-Eskwela’ will directly inform the bills and resolutions we will file in the 20th Congress to demand genuine solutions. We cannot rely on the administration’s sanitized data—we must ground our policies in the lived experiences of our school communities,” said Tinio.

“Mahalagang bahagi ng aming legislative work ang mga pagbisitang ito sa paaralan. Ang mga matutuklasan namin sa ‘Bisita-Eskwela’ ang direktang magiging basehan ng mga panukalang batas at resolusyon na ihahain namin sa Ika-20 Kongreso para igiit ang tunay na solusyon. Hindi kami maaaring umasa sa pinagandang datos ng administrasyon; kailangan naming ibatay ang aming mga polisiya sa tunay na karanasan ng mga komunidad sa paaralan,” Tinio added.

Among the schools visited under the “Bisita-Eskwela” initiative were Batasan Hills National High School, Melencio Elementary School, Caloocan Central Elementary School, and San Francisco High School.

ACT Teachers Party-List vowed to use the findings from these visits to push for a higher education budget, the construction of more classrooms, the hiring of additional teachers, and the implementation of substantial salary increases for all education workers.