Teachers air high hopes in state of education report
BLENDED SYSTEM | Teacher Jermaine San Agustin teaches biology in Taguig City to 12th graders both in school and at home. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — Teachers expect Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte to be honest and realistic when she presents her assessment of the state of basic education on Monday.
“We hope to hear an honest and realistic evaluation of where we are now, what we need to focus on and how we recover from the learning crisis,” Vladimer Quetua, chair of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, said in a statement on Friday.
In a press briefing earlier this month, Michael Poa, spokesperson for the Department of Education (DepEd), said the “Basic Education Report 2023” would lay down the challenges in education as well as the plans and initiatives of the agency to address these.
“It’s really to give the public an idea of the steps that this administration will take and also the direction of this administration toward resolving issues in basic education,” Poa said.
According to Quetua, on top of their “list of expectations” is an assessment of the learning situation based on evidence after two years of distance learning and four months of full in-person classes.
He said the DepEd ordered them to set up a live viewing of the report in all offices and schools to ensure that all teachers and personnel watch the presentation.
“As our teachers, learners and parents have suffered immensely in filling up the shortages in education last school opening, we hope to know from the report what the agency has done to address the shortages in classrooms, school furniture and equipment, learning resources, as well as on teachers and nonteaching personnel,” Quetua said.
