CHED, DOLE and the Department of Education should come up with a better alternative than asking professors to teach in senior high school, committee chair Pasig Rep Roman Romulo said
“Hindi rin naman fair na kumikita ka ng malaki tapos bigla na lang bababa ang sweldo mo dahil sa K-12. kailangang magkaroon ng lunas [ang problema] para hindi maapektuhan ang pamumuhay ng mga teachers,” he said in a press conference after the hearing.
Romulo made the statement after professors from several higher education institutions brought to the attention of the House committee on higher and technical education their fears on their possible displacement from colleges and universities because of the K-12 program.
Based on the data from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), a total of 86,001 faculty members in private HEIs are at risk of being displaced when grades 11 and 12 start in 2016.
In a statement issued Monday, CHED Chair Patricia Licuanan said Filipino will still have a place in the new curriculum since courses under the GEC may be taught in either English or Filipino, as stated under CMO 20-2013.
Licuanan said among the remedies being discussed include the assignment of disciplinal courses to former GE faculty, the deployment of some higher education faculty to senior high school, the grant of research load to deserving faculty, and others.
“The CHED, in fact, has a technical working group studying the challenges posed by the transition to K12 and is working out alternative solutions with the help of DepEd, DOLE and other concerned agencies,” the CHED chairperson said.
At the House committee hearing, educators said some of them and their colleagues have already been notified in advance they will lose their jobs next year.
“Nabigla kami sa nangyayari sa aming eskwelahan dahil sa ganitong klase ng nagiging pagtrato sa mga guro… Para kaming nakatanggap ng sampal mula sa administration na hindi namin inaasahan,” Miriam College Prof. Rebecca Añonuevo told lawmakers at the hearing.
Flordeliza Abanto, a full-time professor at St. Scholastica’s College in Manila, said the school has advised all faculty members it will implement mandatory early separation program for them in anticipation of the expected decline in enrollment in 2016.
“Some of us have already been told we will have to be retrenched soon enough before 2016. We’re not retrenched as of now [but it will happen],” she said.
Stabilization fund
To address the teachers’ plight, CHED has proposed the creation of a P10-billion stabilization fund to help HEIs defray the cost of retaining faculty members and non-teaching personnel who will be displaced by the lack of freshmen and sophomore college students.
“[CHED’s proposed fund] seems to be a mechanism to bail out HEIs even whey they have been profiting for a long time. I hope we can focus instead on creating solutions to protect teachers’ jobs,” said Atty Virginia Suarez of the teachers’ group Protection of the Rights of Teachers and Employees in the Education Sector.
The group warned in a statement that the Philippines might witness an exodus of college teachers to foreign countries should the government fail to come up with a plan to help them obtain security of tenure.
Professor Rene Tadle, internal vice president of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Faculty Union said the DOLE’s proposal is a “simplistic approach” in addressing the problem of displacement.
“Teaching in senior high school will mean a possible demotion in rank and decrease in pay for teachers,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.
The starting salary for public school teachers is P18,500 while the average salary of HEI educators is P30,000.
Meanwhile, members of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts’ National Committee on Language and Translation (NCCA-NCLT) called on CHED to revise the proposed new GEC and include nine mandatory units of Filipino for all courses at the tertiary level.
According to the signatories, many Filipino departments in colleges and universities throughout the country would be dissolved due to CMO 20-2013. The NCCA-NCLT further estimated that around 10,000 full-time and 20,000 part-time teachers would be laid off due to the removal of required Filipino subjects.
In House Resolution 1249, Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon urged the House committee on higher and technical education to probe the controversial Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Memorandum Order No. 20, series of 2013 (CMO 20-2013), which the lawmaker claimed “effectively removed” Filipino subjects in the tertiary GEC.
The resolution also supports the teaching of at least nine units of Filipino courses for all college students.
CMO 20-2013 prescribes a new 36-unit GEC for college students that would take effect as early as academic year 2016-2017. Under the revised curriculum, the number of GEC units has been reduced from the current 63 units for humanities and social science majors or 51 units for science, engineering and math majors to 36 units for all students.
The current mandatory units for Filipino subjects have been removed from the curriculum as a result of the reduction of the required number of units in the GEC.
Aside from Filipino subjects, CHED also removed subjects in English, Math, and introductory courses such as General Psychology and Basic Economics.
“Nakababahala ang panukala ng CHED na tanggalin ang mandatoryong pag-aaral ng ating pambansang wika. Habang pinapaliwanag ng komisyon na ang naturang asignatura ay ituturo na sa ilalim ng programang K-12, nananatili ang pangangailangang higit pang aralin ang wikang Filipino sa mas mataas na antas,” Congressman Ridon said. — ELR, GMA News
