DepEd announces that the chalk allowance for teachers will be renamed cash allowance for blended learning.
Chalk allowance for teachers removed
Annually, a chalk allowance for teachers is being distributed by the Department of Education. All public teachers receive the allowance to purchase teaching materials such as chalks, board erasers, etc, for one school year’s consumption.
For this school year, the DepEd will abolish the chalk allowance for teachers program and will replace it with a cash allowance to be used for blended learning.
Since no physical classes are to be allowed for this school year, there is no need for the chalk allowance for teachers to push through. Instead, the department wants teachers to redirect the budget to other materials to be used for the blended learning program.
The cash allowance program covers all public teachers from job-orders to regular contracts, Alternative learning teachers, Junior and Senior high school teachers, and teachers in the barrio.
Allowance not enough on blended learning set up
The DepEd mentioned that more than three billion pesos were allotted to fund the cash allowance for teachers. However, a teachers union pointed out that there are around 875 thousand teachers are to receive the allowance.
According to one of the teachers, the P 3,500 will not be enough to compensate for the expenses needed in addressing online learning. Fess for internet connection alone won’t be covered by the allowance for even half the duration of the school year. This is given that teachers have their own laptops to use.
Teachers can’t go on with online learning without having a decent laptop or computer set up to work on. Mobile phones and tablets won’t simply be enough to construct workbooks for their students.
In addition, part of the modalities available for blended learning is through learning modules. The question now would be, where will teachers get the funds to print the learning modules to be distributed to the students. Surely the cash allowance that the DepEd provides will not be enough to cover printing expenses.
This is the situation teachers are in today, hopefully, DepEd will realize this and offer additional assistance to our teachers. Individuals should also realize that it isn’t right to persecute the teachers because they are in deeper holes right now when it comes to sustaining blended learning in the upcoming school year.
