Grade 2 teacher Jennifer Rivares starts removing laminated posters with inspirational lines that she made for her students in August 2022 at the Pasig Central Elementary School during Brigada Eskwela 2023. She is saddened by this. But she said she must comply with a recent DepEd order requiring the removal of wall decors, posters, and other decorations in classrooms and keep it plain to avoid (visual) distractions to students. (Photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — Instead of getting rid of decorations in classrooms, the Department of Education (DepEd) should remove the excessive tasks given to educators without proper compensation, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers-National Capital Region (ACT-NCR) union, said in a statement on Saturday.
“It is clear to our teachers that the materials posted in our classrooms, especially in the elementary and primary years, are beneficial for our visual learners,” Ruby Bernardo, the group’s president said.
Bernardo was responding to the recent directive of DepEd under its Department Order (DO) No. 21, s. 2023, to clear the “school grounds, classrooms and all its walls [of] unnecessary artwork, decorations, tarpaulin and posters.”
Classroom walls, it said, should remain bare and devoid of posters, decorations, or other posted materials.
But for Bernardo, “if there is anything that should be removed, it is not the [decorations] hanging in our classroom but the amount of work given to our teachers who are not adequately compensated.”
She said visual materials in classrooms were conducive to learning and teachers invested their time and resources in putting them together.
‘Clean and orderly’
Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte earlier emphasized that the “Brigada Eskwela,” or annual school maintenance program for this year, was made simpler.
“It is just making our schools functional, clean and orderly, inside and outside classrooms, and within school sites,” she said.
Duterte said in an Aug. 16 interview that all decorations, “whatever is written,” must be removed.
During her recent visit to a Brigada Eskwela activity in Bansalan, Davao del Sur, on Aug. 17, the education chief was seen removing her own portrait displayed on the wall of a classroom.
Aside from the removal of classroom decorations, DO 21 also scrapped the annual contests for Best Implementing School Awards, Hall of Fame Awards, and Brigada Plus at the national level to highlight volunteerism efforts among parents, teachers and school staff.
“This move is to completely prevent the schools, school heads, teachers, and other personnel from holding solicitations to raise contributions for the conduct of its Brigada Eskwela activities,” DepEd said.