Teachers groups ask DepEd to reconsider 6-hour teaching day

Teachers' groups on Monday called on the Department of Education (DepEd) to reconsider its policy requiring public school teachers to render six hours of actual classroom teaching in their eight-hour work per day. 

At a hearing of the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture meeting, Teachers' Dignity Coalition (TDC) chairperson Benjo Basas said DepEd Order (DO) No. 005 series of 2024—which set the guidelines for the workload of teachers—posed a “physical challenge.”

“‘Yung worries namin dito sa DepEd Order 5 kung saan sinasabi na dapat required ‘yung teachers natin na anim na oras na magturo, actual classroom teaching, una, sagad po ito. Nakakapagod ito. Praktikal po ‘yan, physical na challenge sa mga teacher at dahil sa MATATAG curriculum, dumami pa ‘yung hawak na sections lalong mas mabigat,” Basas said. 

(DepEd Order 5, which mandates us to teach for six hours is too much. This is tiring for us. It is a physical challenge for teachers, considering that the MATATAG curriculum also gave us more teaching sections.) 

National Association of Public Secondary School Heads Inc. (NAPSSHI) President Dr. Roland dela Cruz said school principals followed the DO, but agreed it was quite a stretch for teachers. 

“‘Pag pinatupad namin ‘to baka lahat ng principal ay pinakulam na ng mga guro. Sana po…magkaron ng provision na ‘wag namang 6 hours na maximum. Magkaron ng leeway na pwede naming gamitin on our own na hindi naman lalabas na underloaded ang mga guro,” Dela Cruz said. 

(If we implement this, the teachers might get angry with the principals. I hope DepEd will have a provision saying that teachers need not to teach for a maximum of 6 hours. I hope they give us a leeway that we can use so that the teachers won’t be underloaded.) 

Under the DO 5, which was signed by former Education Secretary Vice President Sara Duterte, public school teachers need to render eight hours of work daily—of which six hours will be devoted to actual classroom teaching and the remaining two hours for teacher ancillary tasks which may be spent within or outside school premises. 

Republic Act No. 4670 or the Magna Carta of Public School Teachers also states that the actual classroom teaching hours shall not be more than six hours a day, except in exigencies of service where teachers may render more than six hours but not exceeding eight hours of actual classroom teaching a day. 

Education Secretary Sonny Angara earlier said that the DepEd had to be “very strict” in implementing the maximum six-hour teaching period so that teachers would not be overworked and get burned out. 

House Committee on Basic Education and Culture chair Roman Romulo said he would study filing a resolution urging DepEd to lessen the six-hour maximum teaching period while some schools implement double shifting due to a lack of classrooms. 

“Something that the Committee can think about is again just a mere resolution urging the Department of Education, while we are at this double shift approach, na baka naman hindi talaga pupuwede ‘yung maximum six hours na talagang ipatupad kasi talagang hirap ang teachers sa maximum of six hours [maybe we really don’t have to give them six hours of maximum actual teaching because it’s difficult for them],” he said. 

“But I think, it should not be through a law because there will a come a time na kakapusin naman tayo sa teachers, ang sasabihin naman natin ay dahil may batas eh na nagsabing four hours lang eh,” he added. 

(I think, it should not be through a law because there will come a time when we will have a shortage of teachers, and we have to argue that the law states that they only had to teach for four hours.) 

DepEd’s take on the matter is expected in the position paper it would submit next week regarding the proposal to suspend the regular school schedule for 8 to 12 weeks to implement an effective learning recovery program. —NB, GMA Integrated News