The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines criticized the Department of Education (DepEd) over its questionable use of distance learning funds which amounts to more than P8.1-billion of the P16.1-billion Basic Education – Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP) funds as reported by the Commission on Audit (COA).
Teachers had to literally empty their pockets and even take out loans to fill in the gaps not only in the funding for education but also in the delays and lapses in DepEd’s use of the same,
said ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio.
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He added that in the further decline of education quality and access, the welfare and rights of the students suffered significantly.
To DepEd, these are just matters of reports that need to be adjusted, standards that need to be met, no big deal; but these weigh heavily on teachers and students who reel from the effects of their incompetence,
Basilio said.
ACT, citing from COA’s report, noted that DepEd was the flagged for the P8-billion amount – or half of the BE-LCP allotment – which had to do with the agency’s procurement of printed materials from suppliers who have “limited capacity to print in bulk, which resulted to the delay, incomplete, or total non-availability of modules” for school year 2020–2021.
Our public school teachers were forced to produce modules and other learning materials—meaning, to write their own and then reproduce them either by soliciting materials from private entities or by out-of-pocket funding, because of DepEd’s inefficiency to provide the needed resources on time,
Basilio added.
Basilio added that to deliberately procure module printing from unqualified suppliers is a total incompetency that not only burdened overworked and underpaid teachers but denied millions of students’ access to quality education during the pandemic and socio-economic crisis.
The group also noted DepEd’s failure to distribute laptops and internet allowances to teachers which were funded by Bayanihan 2 during SY 2020-2021 and the data allowances provided towards the end of July 2021 through the DepEd-issued SMART sim cards, which received multiple complaints from teachers who were unable to use it due to poor SMART reception in their areas.
Basilio contended that DepEd must be held accountable for all of these as COA’s findings on irregularities only prove that the main problem lies on DepEd’s policies and operations.
Due to these lapses, the group noted that it played a major role in the worsening state of Philippine education at a time of severe health and economic crises.
The group looks forward to the measures that DepEd will take to ensure that the major problems with the previous distance-learning set-up are being resolved and prevented from happening again, as it also owes the public to announce in concrete terms how it is addressing the struggles faced by teachers and students.
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Teachers group slams DepEd over its ‘lapses’ and questionable use of funds
Reviewed by Issues PH
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August 21, 2021
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Reviewed by Issues PH
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August 21, 2021
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