Financial aid for teachers to be released

PUBLIC and private school teachers, who are also gravely affected by the impact of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), are assured of assistance from the government, an official from the Department of Education - Davao Region (DepEd-Davao) said.

DepEd-Davao Jenielito Atillo said in a virtual presser that Education Secretary Leonor Briones already directed to have a release of the salaries of all public school teachers for the month of May.

Atillo said DepEd-Davao is working on the release of their clothing allowance, performance-based bonus, and 13th month pay which is scheduled to be released on May 15.

He said DepEd national also made an agreement with private lending institutions such as banks.

Atillo mentioned that a moratorium can be imposed since most teachers have loan payments in different banks.

“Maghimo sa sila og kasabutan nga dili usa sila maningil ang mga bangko sa pagkakaron aron madungagan ang financial capacity sa atong mga teachers (There should be an agreement that banks, for the meantime, will not collect payments to ensure the financial capability of our teachers),” Atillo said in One Davao on Covid-19 virtual presser on Thursday, April 30.

The DepEd spokesperson, however, admitted private school teachers, as compared to public school teachers, are scarce in financial resources since most institutions are in a “no work, no pay” system.

With this, Atillo said Secretary Briones already forwarded to Congress to include the private school teachers in the social amelioration program (SAP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

“Samtang forwarded pa ang request sa Congress, nanawagan usab ang DepEd sa mga nanag-iya sa mga private schools, if naa sila enough resources, nga tagaan og ayuda ang mga private school teachers (While the request is still forwarded to Congress, DepEd, meanwhile, is appealing to the private school institutions to give some financial assistance to our private school teachers, if they still have enough resources),” he said.

Meanwhile, Atillo said DepEd national has not given a confirmed schedule for the opening of the school year 2020 to 2021 as it still has to be recommended to President Rodrigo Duterte by the Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

But he said that teachers, as early as now, are ordered to prepare for the opening by crafting a learning continuity plan.

“The purpose of this is to ready everybody, both public and private schools in the opening. If ever we would be opening our classes already, at least we are all prepared,” the official said.

Among the preparations DepEd made is the homebased learning system, which is currently being crafted and finalized, since a physical classroom set-up is still not possible even if the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) will be lifted.

He also said they are also considering in their plan, those from far flung areas with only limited online resources, through a modular scheme, an alternative delivery mode to cater students and teachers with no access to the internet.

For teachers who do not have resources such as Wi-Fi, laptops, and other gadgets, Atillo said the Education Secretary already ordered all public schools to make available all gadgets and other resources of the school to teachers.

“We allowed all teachers to get access to the laptops and PCs which they could bring home for them to use in delivering online lessons,” he said.