POSITION ON TEACHER PROTECTION POLICY IN THE PHILIPPINES
Introduction
Our educators are the country’s keepers of the future. Through them, toddlers to young adult learners manage to progress from foundational to more intricate set of skills. However, despite the herculean task that teachers have to accomplish, there are only few legal provisions that protect our teachers in the public and private sectors of education.
Current Situation of the Teachers
In recent years, teachers have endured forms of harassment and abuse. There have been records of students who harass educators, students who resort to physical violence, and institutions that exploit teachers. In these situations, there is little to no legal assistance for teachers. As one might quote that there is Magna Carta for Public School Teachers that stipulates few clauses to protect public school teachers, it evidently excludes the private school teachers, college instructors, and fails to include a wider range of needs of the 21st century educator. When educators are coerced and threatened with court cases, face allegations that endanger their reputation, and experience harassments from parents and students, and endanger themselves in perilous working conditions, there is little to no legal mandate that protects them. In the light of the issue, there is a need to strengthen the legal provision for the protection of teachers against harassment, violence, and dangerous and unjust work conditions.
Proposed Actions and Solutions
There are three aspects that should be strengthened in the legal provision for the protection of teachers-educators. Firstly, a due process against complaints, malicious allegations, defamation and cases filed; secondly, legal aid and protection against harassment, bullying and/or cyberbullying and violence; and, thirdly is to strengthen the health measures for every educator.
The first important legal provision to be strengthened is that educators should have due process against complaints, malicious allegations, defamation and cases filed. With the establishment of the Child Protection Policy which aims to empower students against abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation and discrimination, the rights of teachers to classroom management and discipline are already reprimanded and treated as an act against the aforementioned policy. An example is the incident in a national television program “Isumbong Mo Kay Tulfo”, wherein a teacher was called out and shamed by the parent/guardian for allegedly commiting child abuse. Instead of following the due process to prove whether the teacher committed an act against DepEd’s Child Protection Policy, the parent/guardian of the child directly reported on a television figure who subjected the teacher to a trial by publicity. Although it is the parent’s right to protect his/her child’s physical and psychological well-being, the action done by the parent was unjust. The matter with the child, if due process was followed, should have been tackled first in a school-based counseling procedure to know both the sides of the teacher and the student and also to assess if the action done by the teacher is indeed a form of physical and/or psychological abuse. It is stated in House Bill 58, Section 4, “Any act committed by a teacher or school staff pursuant to the disciplinary rules and procedure issued by the Department shall not be deemed as child abuse, cruelty, or exploitation as defined in the Republic Act No. 7610 or the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitatin and Discrimination Act''. With this regard, the parent should have first reported it to the school for the act to be assessed as either an abuse or not.
One may argue that Section 8 of The Magna Carta for Public School Teachers provides the Safeguards in Disciplinary Procedure for teachers. However, the case mentioned above clearly shows that this has been bypassed. Not only was there any case for a procedure to take place, the educator was also put to shame publicly. This should have been immediately called out if there is a complete and proper due process. Who is then liable for the protection of teachers against complaints, malicious allegations, defamation and cases filed?
The second legal provision to be strengthened is the legal aid and protection of educators against harassment, bullying and/or cyberbullying and violence. With the existence of the Child Protection Policy, the teacher’s authority in the classroom depreciates. Even if there were no reported cases of bullying/cyberbullying of teachers, it does not give assurance that there are no cases like such. Teachers in the private school are at the mercy of the scheming student evaluation. Some students threaten that if the teacher fails them, the said students would retaliate by failing the teacher in the student evaluation. This, in return, would be a ground for dismissal from a non-permanent teaching position. The existence of defamatory comments in social media that cause ‘moral damage’ to educators is considered as lack of classroom management skills from the educators. However, the authors of this position paper believe that there are deeper factors that contribute to the misdemeanor of present-day students. In a study published last year in Journal of Pedagogical Research (JPR), the result says that students have a moderate understanding of what teacher bullying by students is all about. The main concern according to the study “is the prevalence of bullying in the academe and if the perpetrators are guilty of it.”
The absence of a bill that can define teacher bullying and can protect the educator from these malicious behaviors is a contributing factor as to why the teacher’s authority in the classroom depreciates. Furthermore, there is no legal aid that can compensate the damages brought by harassment and violence. In 2016, a teacher from Cagayan de Oro was killed by her 15-year old student. Although legal measures were made towards the student for such an act, there was no legal aid to assist the immediate family.
The third legal provision to be strengthened is the health measures for every educator. There are teachers who are sent to work in dangerous areas with little to no insurance benefit. As these teachers are given hazard pay as stipulated in the Civil Service, when these said teachers need actual healthcare assistance from the work they do, there is no insurance to cover their medical expenses. Although Section 22 and 23 of The Magna Carta for Public School Teachers may provide these necessary medical examinations and treatment for free, over 160,000 private teachers and instructors are given the burden to pay for their own medical fees.
Conclusion
With that being said, the group appeals first to the immediate need of Senate Bill No. 1189 or the "Teacher Protection Act" passed by Senator Grace Poe in order to protect teachers from 'malicious' accusations. The authors also call for a strict enforcement of the provisions through an autonomous legal council responsible for enforcing the rights of all educators and protecting them against complaints, malicious allegations, defamation and cases filed. Second, the group also emphasizes the need for a bill to define bullying in the academe and to penalize administrators, teachers and students who retaliate through intimidation. Lastly, is the expansion of the health measures provision in Magna Carta for Public School Teachers to all educators.
Works Cited
https://www.rappler.com/nation/146196-high-school-... an-de-oro
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED597458.pdf
https://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2019/11/22/...
http://chr.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Posit...
https://www.teacherph.com/learners-discipline-manu...
https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2012/0...
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED597458.pdf
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