School heads and teachers should “not take too literally” the Department of Education’s (DepEd) order that prohibits classroom decorations, saying this only pertains to unnecessary posters, the Teacher’s Dignity Coalition said on Saturday.
Benjo Basas, the coalition’s national chairperson, said DepEd Order No. 21 did not specify anything aside from the removal of insignificant and oversized posters and tarpaulins in classrooms, some of which might involve ads.
Basas said teachers should disagree once important visual aids would be asked to be removed, most especially those that they believe could greatly benefit students’ learning.
This includes, he said, educational posters on the solar system, the table of elements, the Panatang Makabayan, and bionotes on the country’s heroes.
“We call on our colleagues, our school heads, teachers — don’t take it too literally. Ang sinasabi naman ng ating kalihim at vice president ay unnecessary. Pag sinabing unnecessary, yung mga hindi natin kailangan,” he said.
Schools earlier this week took down school decorations to follow DepEd Order 21, which mandates that school grounds, classrooms, and all its walls and other school facilities should be clean and free from unnecessary artwork, decorations, tarpaulin, and posters at all times.
This means classroom walls should be bare.
Oversized signages with commercial advertisements, sponsorships, endorsements, announcements of any kind are also prohibited.
ACT Teachers Party-list Representative France Castro, meanwhile said visual aids are not a distraction to students, contrary to the Vice-President’s belief.
Castro also described the order as “unnecessary” as visual aids help elementary students. Instead of these issues, she said the DepEd should focus on the pressing matters that hound the education sector instead.
It seemed that many teachers “disagreed” with the directive, Castro said, noting that DepEd did not also release any study supporting their order.
“There was no consultations with the teachers on what to do with these visual aids kung kailangan o hindi,” she added.
