Edcom 2 to DepEd: Make sure to remove admin tasks of teachers

The Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) asked the Department of Education (DepEd) to guarantee the full implementation of its recently released policy on cutting administrative tasks of public school teachers.

Aiming to unburden teachers from too much work and effectively let them focus on teaching their students, DepEd Order 2 (DO2) series of 2024, signed by Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte, on January 26, ordered the immediate removal of administrative tasks of public school teachers.

A 60-day transition period would be needed for Schools Division Offices (SDOs) to provide support for clustering of schools, deployment of non-teaching personnel, insurance of the immediate transfer and turnover of existing administrative tasks, and hiring of administrative support personnel.

In the hearing of the commission held on February 8 at the University of the Philippines-Bonifacio Global City campus, Education Officer in Charge Wilfredo Cabral, undersecretary for Human Resource and Organizational Development, said that during the transitory period, SDOs should be tasked to submit a proposed deployment of non-teaching personnel and clustering of schools.

Under the department order, DepEd allocated an initial P300 million to provide Administrative Officer 2 positions.

Edcom 2 Executive Director Karol Mark Yee said that they would work closely with DepEd to ensure that administrative tasks would no longer burden teachers and added that the commission was eagerly anticipating the order’s full implementation by March 26 or earlier.