The Worth of a Teacher

Since the school year started in public schools, it has been reported via social media (Facebook) that there were already four teachers who committed suicide and the stated reason was SCHOOL-RELATED PRESSURES.

But is that really a good enough reason to commit such act? As for me, we cannot really judge them because I know for a fact the intensity of pressures in DepEd and unless those in authority would do something about it, things will always be the same.

With all the required paper works that each teacher are obligated to comply, patience, is indeed, a virtue. We need that in order to cope up all the pressures in meeting the deadlines, not to mention the classes that you have to handle everyday.  Pressures are real, multi-tasking is real! But if we learn the art of saying NO to some of the delegated tasks, then maybe we can control the pressure. And I am a firm believer that committing suicide is never an option to stop the burden that most of the teachers are experiencing right now. And maybe this is the right time that the department should look into consideration so that such incident won't happen again.

Gone were the days that the only thing that a teacher should attend to are teaching and recording children's progress, no more, no less. We could only hope that it will be just like the old times. In that way, quality of education can really be assured. 

Why not hire a non-teaching staff to do all the paper works like record keeping, etc. instead of putting all the burdens to the teachers. that can be possible. After all, teacher are mandated to teach- other than that are an added pressure. But am not saying that they will not help in the recording anymore-of course they have to since they have the data.

So what's an ideal school then?

There are students, teachers, admin consisting of the school heads, the assistant to the school head, non-teaching personnel to function as follows: 1 registrar, 1 school record keeper, 1 property custodian, 1 librarian, 1 nurse, 1 guidance counsellor, 1 prefect of discipline, 1 disbursing officer, social worker (for the 4Ps), ICT technician (to do all ICT-related tasks).

Whew, if only this simple wishes will be heard, teaching life would be awesome!

If Only.