My recent involvement with the programs of the Department of Education has made me relive the times when my mom was still with the department. Many things have changed.
Teachers are now better paid. More efficiently that is with the presence of the automated teller machines. Long ago, I would see some teachers who queue for their pay and would sometimes look like they were practically in debt to the higher ups who would sign their checks or follow-up their pay from the central office, as their treasury releases were so centralized.
We are glad that that has already changed. Now budgets have been downloaded and teachers get to be paid on time. Though I am sure that, with all the needs for better instructional materials, teachers still find their pay to be inadequate as they have to spend for their teaching aids.
It will take creativity and an innovative mind for a teacher to come up with instructional tools that are attractive enough to arrest their students’ attention and facilitate learning. With the advent of computers, students tend to lose their focus faster as they have been so used to getting material that is quick and easy to read through the computer. Sometimes, indiscriminately downloading even the junk, as mind you, not all material in the net are based on facts. That makes the work of the teachers far more challenging.
What adds up to their difficulties as instructors is their preparation space. Teachers need enough room to study their lessons, prepare their materials, and design better visual aids. Teachers need a good working space that allows for enough quiet thought, reading time, intellectual exchange, and lesson verification among fellow teachers.
As it is, teachers do not have enough privacy to even check their papers in school that oftentimes they have to bring their work home, taking off some of the family time and the much needed rest to refresh their minds.
Most of the public schools do not have a faculty room or a teachers’ lounge not to mention a workable library where both students and teachers can do research. The lack of space for course preparations has made both teachers and students somehow dependent on the computer—if one has an internet connection, let alone the hardware.
As the population of the school increases, more space is required for classrooms. But we have somehow forgotten that we must also provide our teachers with faculty space. Many business organizations who have donated school buildings have focused their structures mainly on the students, which actually is the point of the school. But the other half of learning comes from the source and those are the teachers.
It is therefore the appeal of this page to those who intend to donate school buildings to consider looking as well into the facilities of the teachers so that they will have a comfortable environment to prepare their lessons and have the right disposition as they teach.
Students absorb both the inputs and the character of their teacher. If the teachers do not have a good work area, this may also affect their lessons and delivery. The aura they exude in the classroom sets the tempo of the class. Though I am not saying that our teachers today who are not sufficiently provided with good work stations do not adjust, my point is, wouldn’t it make them more efficient and better motivated if their welfare is also considered?
I send this call to both DepEd and those generous corporate citizens to consider. Maybe in the next project? Soon?