THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers criticized the Department of Education’s Learning Sup-port Aides program, saying the scheme will not help with the learning needs of the marginalized students.

“The LSA program does not really provide learning opportunities for the most disadvantaged as by DepEd design, LSAs have no teaching function, and will simply assist teachers in class man-agement and clerical work. While other students have learning opportunities via online class, phone-based consultations, and home tutorials, the most marginalized will remain wanting some-body to teach them the contents of the modules,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary gen-eral, said.

Basilio also questioned the viability of the program citing the unreliable fund sources and the long and arduous hiring process set by DepEd.

The LSA guidelines stated that funds for the project could be sourced from the Special Educa-tion Fund, local government funds, DepEd division office Maintenance and Other Operating Ex-penses, local school MOOE, and DepEd special project funds or support from the private sector.

“We are afraid that this program will go nowhere as instead of allocating funds for it, the DepEd is again passing on to LGUs and local schools the task of financing LSA salaries when these funds have already been drained for modules, devices, and school safety supplies. Moreover, LSAs could be too late the hero to prevent the rapid dropping out of unattended learners given the laborious hiring process set by DepEd,” Basilio said.

He claimed that the guidelines violate teachers’ right to just compensation as the program will hire professional teachers but will only pay them minimum wage.

“Our professional teachers will essentially be relegated to this program, when in fact they have the capability and training to really teach the marginalized students and have the right to be com-pensated accordingly,” Basilio said.

Instead of the LSA program, ACT pushed for the hiring of 100,000 teachers who will work as community tutors and will conduct community-based learning to service the most marginalized students.