Removing the non-teaching tasks from teachers in public schools was among the highlights of the second Basic Education Report (BER) presented by Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte on Jan. 25.

In the BER 2024, Duterte underscored the need to remove administrative tasks from teachers and enable them to maximize their time in actual classroom teaching. “Let’s bring our teachers back to the classrooms,” she said.

To ensure the effective implementation of the said policy, Duterte said that 10,000 administrative personnel positions are available for 2023 and 2024.

The day after, on Jan. 26, DepEd formally released the policy through the DepEd Order No. 002, s. 2024 entitled “Immediate Removal of Administrative Tasks of Public School Teachers.”

As a transitory provision, DepEd said the policy requires Schools Division Offices (SDOs) to “immediately” implement clustering strategies as well as the deployment of administrative support personnel to clustered schools.

DepEd also ordered SDOs for the “immediate” transfer of existing administrative tasks of teachers to school heads and non-teaching personnel and and hiring of administrative support personnel within a period not exceeding sixty (60) calendar days.

Admin tasks and teachers

The announcement of Duterte to ease the workload of teachers by freeing them from non-teaching tasks was a move welcomed by many quarters.

While groups welcomed the move, DepEd was also reminded to ensure the full implementation of the policy in all schools across the country.

Administrative tasks, as defined by DepEd, refer to “tasks related to the effective and efficient operations of schools or programs, projects, and services which are not directly related to teaching and academic learning.”

These tasks, DepEd said, shall be performed by School Heads and non-teaching personnel.

Why issue the policy?

In its Order, DepEd said that the policy was issued because it “fervently believes that the core of quality basic education is a vibrant and quality teaching workforce.”

“With this commitment, it is imperative to build a work environment for teachers that upholds and protects their welfare,” DepEd said. “This shall include measures to protect the workload and working hours of teachers,” it added.

Citing reports and studies, DepEd said that Filipino teachers are being assigned “additional tasks that shift their focus from teaching.”

For instance, DepEd cited the 2018 Teacher Workload Balance Study which identified approximately 50 common ancillary services assigned to teachers in addition to their regular teaching load.

“These extra duties are often the result of understaffed schools being unable to provide sufficient support services,” DepEd noted.

DepEd also noted that the “absence of standardized guidelines and a mechanism to review these tasks further compounds the issue.”

Research from various institutions, DepEd said, suggested that the increase in administrative assignments “significantly impacts teacher workload, ultimately affecting teaching quality and teacher well-being.”

DepEd said that removing the administrative tasks of teachers, will “enable” them to maximize their time in actual classroom teaching.

“With this endeavor, they shall be able to focus on the teaching and learning process and become effective facilitators of learning,” DepEd said.

Moreover, DepEd said that this initiative will also help “protect and uplift” the welfare and well-being of public school teachers to support them to teach better which in turn shall “realize quality learning among the Filipino learners.”

DepEd said that the policy aims to “enable teachers to focus on their core function of teaching through the removal of administrative tasks assigned to teachers.”

The issuance, DepEd added, also aims to ensure that teachers' workload and working hours are “maximized for actual classroom teaching and tasks incidental to their normal teaching duties.”

Implementing guidelines

The immediate removal of administrative tasks of public school teachers will cover all DepEd-employed teachers engaged in classroom teaching, on a full-time basis, under permanent, provisional, or substitute status in all public elementary and secondary schools.

DepEd said the policy will be implemented across all governance levels --- including DepEd schools, Schools Division Offices (SDOs), Regional Offices (ROs), and Central Office (CO).

As stated in the policy, DepEd said that administrative tasks shall be “removed from the workload of teachers, without prejudice to the teacher ancillary tasks as defined by other DepEd issuances.”

School Heads and non-teaching personnel, DepEd said, shall have the “sole responsibility” to perform the administrative tasks which may include personnel/administration, property/physical facilities custodianship, general administrative support, financial management, records management, and program management such as feeding, school disaster risk reduction management and other related programs.

To augment the non-teaching personnel requirements of schools, DepEd said that SDOs may cluster deployed non-teaching personnel by the deployment Parameters issued by the Bureau of Human Resource and Organizational Development (BHROD).

SDOs and schools may also hire personnel under a Contract of Service (COS) or JO (Job Order) which may be charged either against Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) or other alternative sources of funding.

DepEd has said that a grievance mechanism where “concerns, complaints, and/or violations arising from the implementation of this policy” is also made available.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by MANILA BULLETIN

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