While the teacher shown in a viral video scolding her misbehaving students may have been wrong in the way she dealt with them, she should not be judged right away as the incident only shows a “bigger problem.”
According to Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) chair Benjo Basas, the “full context” of the video must be determined by the Department of Education (DepEd) in its investigation.
Earlier, Deped gave the teacher, who works in a high school in Metro Manila, 72 hours to explain why she should not be charged administratively.
The video clip on TikTok, which went viral last week, was criticized by social media users who called her out for her choice of words.
READ: Teacher in viral scolding video faces DepEd probe
For Basas, he urged the public to “not quickly judge” the teacher based on the two-minute video.
“We want to remind everyone that there is a bigger problem at hand with this viral video,” he said in a statement. “And that is the matter of discipline in schools and its place in the overall state of our education, especially in public schools.”
Made obsolete
While acknowledging that children indeed “need discipline to learn,” he said this method was “rendered obsolete” as some forms of discipline were being classified as child abuse under current policies, putting teachers “at a disadvantage,” Basas explained.
Some of these policies include the DepEd Child Protection Policy or the Department Order No. 40, series of 2012, the Anti-Child Abuse Law, among others.
“We acknowledge these, and as teachers, we also believe that the state has an obligation to protect children, wherever they may be,” Basas said. “However, these policies should not be used against our teachers. Teachers must also be protected from those who would take advantage of these policies to harm us and make us their victims.”
He noted how teachers, in some instances, were either falsely accused, scandalized, humiliated, intimidated or even detained due to minor or “honest mistakes.”
Basas also called on the government to institutionalize the “needed protection” for teachers, saying that while the TDC would never tolerate any wrongdoing in their ranks, they would defend their right to due process.
Education Assistant Secretary Francis Cesar Bringas, in a message to the Inquirer on Tuesday, said DepEd has yet to complete administrative proceedings in the case.
ACT Teachers party list Rep. France Castro, meanwhile, said the group would also talk to the teacher concerned.
“We understand where [she] is coming from, especially if we feel that our students do not give importance to their studies but it is also wrong [for us] to humiliate them on social media,” Castro said.
“There are other ways we [can] inspire our students to learn more and to respect us as teachers but what [she] did only made it worse, apparently,” she added. INQ