VICE President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte lashed out at the Alliance of Concerned Teachers for calling on the department to allot P100 billion per year for classrooms and hire 30,000 teachers, branding it “deceptive.”

Duterte said the group’s statement was “obviously deceptive” and designed to counter the Marcos administration’s solution to the problems hounding the education sector.

She stresses that the government will not be pressured, hoodwinked, or distracted by groups like ACT Teachers.

“Our objective is to eliminate elements that contribute to learning losses, effectively implement reforms, and exercise fiscal responsibility by using resources wisely through innovations and mechanisms that will improve learning,” the DepEd chief said.

She also questioned the timing of the statement, coming at the height of the violence initiated by the New People’s Army in Masbate that affected over 55,199 learners and 2,815 school personnel.

“ACT Teachers, while silent about the NPA operations, apparently needed to come up with something outrageous to divert the public’s attention away from the damage that the NPA attacks caused to our Masbate learners,” she said.

The DepEd chief said her agency continues to hire additional teachers and non-teaching personnel to address the shortage of teachers.

“DepEd is also set to deploy more administrative officers in schools to complement its workforce and ultimately reduce the administrative tasks of teachers,” she added.