Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
The Department of Education (DepEd) should remove the limit set on service day credits, a group of education workers said on Sunday, June 11.
(NOEL PABALATE / MANILA BULLETIN FILE)
Issuing a statement, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines urged DepEd to remove the 15 days maximum limit currently being imposed as teachers raised their concerns about the maximum limit of days on service credits.
ACT Chairperson Vladimer Quetua said the group has been receiving reports that the excess service credits are “not included” after 15 days.
“Nasasayang ang pagod ng mga guro at sa wala lang napupunta (Teachers’ efforts are wasted and goes nowhere),” Quetua said.
ACT raised the concern about credit limits amid the plan of DepEd to implement learning camps in July.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2023/6/7/dep-ed-to-hold-nat-l-learning-camp-during-school-break
The current school year is scheduled to end on July 7. During the school break, DepEd plans to implement learning camps for a period of three to five weeks.
“Malaking usapin ito laluna ngayong may planong National Learning Camp ang DepEd na nakatapat sa bakasyon ng mga guro (This is a big deal especially now that DepEd has a National Learning Camp plan that coincides with the teachers’ vacation),” Quetua said.
Given this, ACT said that adequate compensation and corresponding service credits should be given to teachers who will volunteer to implement the program.
Citing section 9 of CSCS memorandum circular No. 41 s. 1998, ACT noted that “service credit is a privilege granted to teachers for days that they are required to work outside of their regular workdays, which they can use to offset their absences.”
Based on DepEd Order No. 53, s. 2003, ACT said that the number of vacation service credits granted to a teacher shall not exceed fifteen workdays in a year.
For ACT, it is unreasonable that the counted service credits are limited to only 15 days when the teachers work more than 15 days outside of their main duties.
“Actual work rendered ‘yon kaya dapat lamang na mayroong makatarungang compensation (That’s actual work rendered, so there should be fair compensation),” Quetua said.
Moreover, ACT noted that there must also be a 25-percent overtime premium or the equivalent of 1.25 service credits for each day the teacher works beyond the scheduled work days in a school year.
With this, ACT reiterated its demand for DepEd, CSC, and DBM to “urgently scrap” the 15-day service credit limit.
“For this year alone, many teachers complained that many of their hard earned credits are not honored because of the cap currently imposed,” Quetua said.
“This is a form of scam, teachers were told that their extra work is to be compensated but at the end of the year, it will not be honored,” he added.
Quetua said ACT teachers have long been “neglected” by the government by way of low salaries and poor and delayed benefits.”
“It’s about time you properly remunerate us for our services,” he added. — Merlina Hernando-Malipot
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