Representative Kristine Alexie Tutor has filed a bill, which aims to remove all non-teaching responsibilities from faculty members’ to-do lists.
The newly filed “School Health and Safety Act” aims to ease the work of teachers in public schools, as it is common knowledge that they are often burdened with tasks much beyond their teaching capabilities.
Ms. Tutor has also expressed her desire to start establishing School Health and Safety Offices (SHSO) across public schools in order to alleviate the task list of teachers. SHSO will be responsible for addressing problems related to health and stress in schools and will allow teachers to focus better on their teaching duties.
Non-teaching duties put additional pressure on educators
The Philipines has been actively working on bettering the educational system. Recent examples include Senator Cayetan’s recent inclusive education bill.
The bill proposed by Ms. Tutor is another step forward, this time looking to better the work environment for teachers. Removing non-teaching duties will allow educators to focus on their primary task of providing quality classes and lessons to their students.
While the need for health and safety guidance in schools is undeniable, teachers are often overloaded with tasks that stretch far beyond the curriculum.
Ms.Tutor is also moving to provide additional staff to school with campus-attendance of more than a thousand (1000) students. According to her, such big schools need dedicated medical team, school psychologists, and dentists.
Pushing the necessity to relieve educators of non-teaching duties, Ms. Tutor accentuated that campuses with more than three thousand students (3000) could use additional help, beyond the establishment of SHSO.
