Sen. Joel Villanueva’s statement on the opening of classes
The “all systems go” pronouncement of the Department of Education (DepEd) for the opening of classes must be matched with the readiness on the ground of the facilities, teachers and students.
The era of missing classrooms, sharing tables and chairs and holding classes under the shade of trees must no longer happen.
We expect our students to have their classes in comfortable classrooms and with complete learning materials as promised by DepEd.
Observance of minimum health standards must be ensured as the threat of COVID-19 continues to linger.
The opening of a new school year also brings to focus the hardships of our teachers.
A salary upgrade is ideal which we will continue to push. But a realistic measure that may be immediately addressed would be an increase in allowance of public school teachers, including those in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) and state-run technical vocational institutions (TVIs).
"We must pay our teachers for what they are worth given the responsibility they carry on their shoulders — our children's learning and future."
Teachers are skilled professionals doing increasingly complex and challenging work. Outside of their academic tasks, we know of teachers who end up spending their own money to shoulder classroom-related expenses and to assist needy students so they continue to be in school.
To this end, we have filed two Senate bills to alleviate the condition of our educators. We propose to provide additional grocery and transportation allowance, and medical allowance for teaching and non teaching personnel in public basic education schools (Senate Bill No. 564), as well as teaching personnel in our SUCs and TVIs (Senate Bill No. 565).
We must pay our teachers for what they are worth given the responsibility they carry on their shoulders — our children's learning and future.