MANILA, Philippines — The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) asked the Department of Education (DepEd) on Sunday to remove the 15-day limit for vacation service credits as compensation for those volunteering in the National Learning Camp (NLC) program during their end-of-school-year break.
ACT reported that it had received complaints from teachers whose excess service credits were not being honored because of the cap imposed by DepEd.
“Teachers’ efforts are being wasted and going nowhere. This is a big deal especially now that DepEd has a National Learning Camp plan that coincides with the teachers’ vacation,” ACT chair Vladimer Quetua said.
Reached for comment, Education Undersecretary Michael Poa, also the concurrent DepEd spokesperson, said the department was still finalizing the guidelines for the camp.
“Regarding the service credits that we are looking to give our volunteer teachers, the plan is to grant service credits that will be exclusive of the 15-day limitation. This means that, the service credits we are planning to give will not be covered by the 15-day limit,” Poa told the Inquirer
‘Unreasonable’
Under a Civil Service Commission (CSC) memorandum issued in 1998, vacation service credits refer to leave credits earned by teachers for work rendered during the summer or Christmas breaks. Teachers may use these to offset their absences during the school year.
However, DepEd Order No. 53, s. 2003 limits the number of vacation service credits granted to a teacher to just 15 workdays in a year “except in cases authorized by the [DepEd] secretary upon the recommendation of the regional director.”
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, DepEd lifted the 15-day service credit limit for school year 2020-2021, as many teachers were requested and authorized to report for work even on weekends and selected holidays. With the upcoming launch of the NLC—one of DepEd’s initiatives to address learning losses in basic education—teachers would be required to conduct enrichment, intervention or remediation activities for Grades 7 and 8 students for a period of three to five weeks during their end-of-school-year break.
“It is unreasonable that the counted service credits are limited to only 15 days when the teachers work more than 15 days outside of their main duties,” Quetua said.
‘A form of scam’
“We reiterate our demand for DepEd, CSC, and the [Department of Budget and Management] to urgently scrap the 15-day service credit limit ….This is a form of scam. Teachers were told that their extra work is to be compensated but at the end of the year, it will not be honored,” he added.
ACT had earlier said that while participation in the learning camp was not mandatory, teachers who do so would be deprived of their “right to ample rest and time to recuperate from the grueling work.”
Pushing teachers and students beyond their limits could be counterproductive in achieving education recovery, the group noted.
“While this program aims to address the learning gaps, this can be even more detrimental to the well-being of our already overworked and burned-out teachers,” it added.
Added burden
In its statement last week, another teachers’ group acknowledged that while learning interventions were needed to help struggling students, DepEd should also be considerate of teachers’ welfare.
“School break is very important. This is a time when children and teachers can rest and prepare for the next school year after 10 months of going to school,” the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition said.
During a meeting with the Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom II) on May 18, Education Undersecretary Gina Gonong said one of the problems they were anticipating with the implementation of NLC was the added burden it would put on teachers.
“We’re giving incentives. We are looking into the possibility of giving overload pay but we will continue to provide service credits to teachers joining the learning camp,” Gonong said, as she assured Edcom II that teachers would still be given time to rest before the rollout of the learning camps.