CBCP: Teachers should not suffer due to K-12

CBCP President Socrates Villages. FILE PHOTO

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) expressed its hope that the full implementation of the K-to-12 program will not lead to the unemployment of teachers and school employees.

In a pastoral letter, re-elected CBCP President and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas urged policy implementers to make sure that teachers are not displaced because of the program.

“We plead with the government agencies tasked to implement this new policy, to do everything to ensure that all members of the schools are not displaced or unemployed,” a part of the letter read.

CBCP said that no one should be “unjustly displaced” in order for the program to be fully realized.

“We caution that the K-12 program should not lead to the teachers and school personnel losing tenure in their employment. Adjustments will have to be made by all but no one should be made to unjustly suffer in the implementation of the program,” it said.

The conference of Filipino bishops said that the government should not relegate the stature of teachers as mere “expenses.”

“Teachers are not to be considered just as expenses but as partners in the noble mission of education,” the letter read.

They also encouraged all relevant sectors to be involved in “appreciative conversations” to fine-tune the program for the benefit of the Filipino youth.

Critics of the policy said that the K-12 program, the government’s most far-reaching basic education reform initiative to date, will displace around 75,000 to 80,000 teachers.

However, DepEd said that during the two-year gap (2016 to 2017) where there will be an expected lack of incoming first year college students, about 12,000 teachers will lose their jobs.

The education department said that it is considering giving subsidies to the displaced teachers.

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