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Philippines
Friday, January 24, 2025
25.9 C
Philippines
Friday, January 24, 2025

‘Teacher to the Barrios’

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes and 13 seconds
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IF WE had a program called ‘Doctor to the Barrios’ successfully implemented by the Department of Health in the 1990s to address the shortage in doctors serving in impoverished and remote areas nationwide, why not a similar initiative in the field of education at this time?

House Bill 11195, also known as the Teacher to the Barrios Act, seeks to deploy teachers to remote areas nationwide who will receive the necessary support and adequate compensation for their efforts.

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What’s the rationale for this proposed measure? Its author, Eastern Samar Rep. Maria Fe Abunda explained she had come across many stories of school-aged children crossing mountains and rivers just to reach school and teachers who volunteer to travel to far-flung barrios at great risk to their safety and health without the benefit of career security, career progress nor just compensation.

Under the Teacher to the Barrios program, educators would be entitled to receive their “long overdue and much-deserved recompense” while encouraging more colleagues to follow in their footsteps.

The lawmaker hopes the measure would assist in government’s effort to formalize and standardize instruction brought to students in remote areas and address the issue of inaccessibility of education. The bill, however, would be only one of the steps in continuing efforts to close the gaps in Philippine education.

The key objective of the bill is for DepEd to maintain a pool of teachers who will commit themselves to serve by conducting study sessions and formal basic education for residents in geographically isolated and/or generally hard-to-reach areas.

Under HB 11195, residents will be taught with a module or system parallel to that of a formal basic education in the form of study sessions, which may be conducted in a public community hall or private hall.

Teachers taking part in the program will receive basic salaries no lower than that of an entry-level public school elementary teacher.

They will be entitled to representation and transportation allowances, hazard pay, social benefits and given the option to avail themselves of scholarships for postgraduate studies, provided they have rendered at least four years of service.

The proposed bill would encourage local government units to request for the deployment of ‘Teacher to the Barrios’ in the local communities/barangay within their jurisdiction. The LGU would also provide community halls where the learning sessions could be held.

The ‘Teacher to the Barrios’ bill deserves serious consideration and approval by our lawmakers as this is in full accord with the Constitutional mandate that “the State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all.”

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