DEPED WOES: 'FEI SHANG, GAOSHING...'

The saga of finger-pointing and evasion of responsibility lives on!

Over-a-year fresh from ascending as both the deputy chief executive of the country and education department secretary, Sara Duterte, just like her viral video birthday greetings where she erroneously enunciated words in Mandarin, does not fully know what she is doing over the mandates that she and her over 32 million voters chose to serve, especially on the talks of a humane teacher salary hike

With her excuse of the hike jeopardizing the interest of private educational institutions in the country, it seems like the younger Duterte has no prior plans to further increase the salary of Filipino educators, which is ironically one of the major platforms of her political party during the 2022 National Elections

Disappointing in itself, the greatest deal in this wish-wash, however is the wrong point of comparison the DepEd secretary is partaking in: assessing the disparity of public and private schools in the country

Echoing what ACT Teachers

Partylist Representative France Castro said in opposition to Duterte's reasoning, the possible migration of private teachers to public schools due to foreseen pressure to the former is a problem that has been forecasted already from previous administrations now

What Duterte has failed to account for is the myriad of other factors affecting the lives of Filipino teachers, such as living costs, learning capital, and graduate school tuition otherwise Traversing through my college education, I am most shocked that these 'comrades,' whom I will quote dearly as such, are the people who would greet me with all smiles on my Facebook posts whenever I achieve academic success. When I see such praise from them, my mind would eventually go back to that moment

To me, these are supermarket cashiers who could have become CPAs These are call center agents who could have become licensed professional teachers communication practitioners, or even IT experts. To me, these are people who settled for what they only have over a loss that could not have been the case, if people who brandish the power of educational funding are not greatly concerned over money fees, among others as the bases for their pay hike. These factors, when exacerbated by negligence and false hopes from the department that should have addressed these, become recipes for complete disaster local industry shift, job mismatch, and worse, brain drain

Reaching my senior year I toast with you, my comrades, as my victory over this oppressive, antipoor education that I contended with comes to fruition You may be contented already with the money that you gain from your jobs; but imagining how education in its purest form can change your life my guilt just grew larger. This is for you all.

I t o a s t w i t h y o u , m y c o m r a d e s , a s m y v i c t o r y o v e r t h i s o p p r e s s i v e , a n t i - p o o r e d u c a t i o n t h a t I c o n t e n d e d w i t h c o m e s t o f r u i t i o n .

Given Duterte's insights about the matters hounding the salary of teachers in the country, it is safe and bold to say at the same time that our education system is at full risk of being denatured of its glory This issue is just a fraction of the entire trainwreck that will take its full effect once the leadership of the young Duterte goes at full throttle Sara personally utilizing the department as her façade and mouthpiece to somehow continue the legacy of his father Digong blindly combatting any forces that go opposite from their means, subsequently branding them names like 'NPA' and 'Pulahan' (Reds).

As I felt like I already shared my sentiments toward the general teachingpopulace,thispartofthe column is directly addressed to teachers who defended and votedforDuterteandherliking It iswithregretthatIshameyou,as a student myself Even when I think that you #dasurv these repercussions, but for the whole teaching workforce, I hope that when an opportunity changes everything, you reminisce your choicesandgetthingsright You, unlikeyourdepartmentsecretary, canstillenvisiongenuinechanges

W h a t D u t e r t e h a s f a i l e d t o a c c o u n t f o r i s t h e m y r i a d o f o t h e r f a c t o r s a f f e c t i n g t h e l i v e s o f F i l i p i n o t e a c h e r s

Monicker

JERI MAE A. LAXAMANA

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