It is high time for college schools offering education courses to prepare future teachers on real-life challenges of teachers serving in remote communities, said Department of Education Leyte assistant schools division superintendent Edgar Tenasas.
“Higher learning institutions should embed in their curriculum the
multi-grade teaching since this is responsive to community needs. Our plan is
to encourage college schools to tie up with us and adjust their curriculum,”
Tenasas said on Thursday.
A multi-grade class is defined as a class of two or more grades
under one teacher in a complete or incomplete elementary school. DepEd
organizes these classes to offer the complete six grade levels to children in
remote communities with only few enrolees.
“The second lesson here is that newly-hired teachers should
evaluate themselves if they are really ready to face the challenge of serving
in far-flung communities such as managing a room with multi-grade classes,”
Tenasas said.
It has been a common practice in DepEd to assign new teachers in
upland and remote communities, where multi-grade system is commonly practiced
to curb dropouts. At present, Leyte has 500 classes of this kind.
“It would be unfair to assign a new teacher in central schools and
transfer the seniors to a remote area,” he added.
On the part of the education department, the incident calls for
the conduct of preliminary activities such as emotional readiness before the
deployment of teachers.
“We have to prepare our teacher emotionally since many in the new
generation are socially detached because of the use of mobile phones and other
gadgets. We will also think of ways to trim down paper works in order to lessen
the burden of our teachers,” Tenasas explained.
Every day, a teacher is required to prepare a 10-page lesson plan
and some instructional materials. On a regular basis, they have to make oral
reading reports of children, individual cards, and document all school-related
activities as attachments to the bi-annual Individual Performance Commitment
and Review Form for Teachers.
The education department reiterated its call for teachers to
manage depression after reports circulated on social media that piles of
paperwork had prompted Emylou Malate, 21, a multi-grade teacher in La Paz,
Leyte, to commit suicide inside their house in Limba village last July 14.
Malate, single, was assigned to a multi-grade class at the Bagacay
West Primary School, an upland school some five kilometers from the town
center. Her first day of work was last June 25.
Malate’s friends created a “Justice for Teacher Emylou” Facebook
page. Its latest post has more than 67,000 shares and nearly 18,000 comments as
of Friday morning. Many of those who shared and liked the post are public
school teachers.
For Grade 6 teacher Airen Modina, 39, being positive despite all
work-related and personal struggles is a must.
“Although I am mindful of the plight of my very poor students, I
have my own burden to bear. My husband has been suffering kidney failure for
three years now and the only way for him to survive is through dialysis, which
is very costly,” said the mother of two, who has been in the teaching
profession for more than a decade.
Modina is a Grade 6 teacher of Catagbacan Elementary School, a small
campus in a farming community nine kilometers upland from the town center.
The teacher and some family members chip in PHP23,400 every month
for her husband’s monthly dialysis. She only gets PHP6,900 monthly net salary,
suffering nearly PHP18,000 pay cuts due to loan deductions.
Since she is considered as better off than other siblings, she is
obliged to provide financial support to her parent and nieces.
“Yes, life is more burdensome with so many work-related problems
such as paper works, classroom maintenance, poor performing pupils, but I have
to be strong to see my children living a better life in the future. I have been
very prayerful and positive that the best is yet to come,” Modina shared.
Tenasas praised thousands of teachers for their determination to
face all challenges with faith.
“I salute these teachers who are relentless in their effort to
educate our children even in remote communities despite all these problems. I
believe that it all depends on the emotional stability of a person,” he added. (SQM/PNA)
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