Too Difficult a Situation for Teachers (and Students, Too!)

I HAVE no right to complain.

In many schools in the country today, teachers have to teach inside classrooms with more than 80 students for more than seven hours a day. They spend their own money for their visual aids and other instructional materials. Their classrooms are neither well ventilated nor sound proofed. Moreover, they teach low success learners.

In my case, my students are fast learners–the cream of the crop of SOCSARGEN, in fact. Our classrooms are good and our facilities quite better than what regular schools have. The only problem I have is that I’m teaching for seven hours a day. The only break I have is the 20-minute recess and the 60-minute lunch break. You see, the number of hours we spend in school is more than eight hours. Another thing is the pressure from our heads. They are expecting us to perform well–to maintain our school’s reputation.

I admit it’s very difficult. But then again, I have no right to complain. And there’s no use complaining. Thousands of teachers in the country have raised their voices since long ago about the wretched situation of teachers (so wretched that many of us are buried in loans or payday loans) and Philippine public schools, in general. Anything happened so far?

You know the answer. There’s very little improvement. Not only the teachers are affected by this. The students, too, absorb the shock.

The only hope we are clinging to are the current proposals that are geared towards helping ease the burden that teachers bear. I have heard that Sen. Cayetano is proposing a nine thousand-peso increase in teachers’ monthly salary that will be given on a staggered basis. There would be an increase of three thousand pesos on the monthly salary of teachers every year. Another one is the proposal of setting a maximum of six hours of teaching.

I agree that instruction constitutes a significant fraction of the performance of our students in achievement exams. These moves to improve the effectivity of teachers, aside from the in-service trainings we are given, are laudable. May these efforts succeed.