Cases against teachers seem to be alarming these past few days. A significant difference of students before and today can be clearly observed in different schools. Discipline is such a dilemma in most institutes. This pushed ACT Party-List Representative Antonio L. Tinio to pass House Bill 5735 known as the Student Discipline and Teacher Protection Act.
This must be passed in order to enhance the delivery of education to large number of learners.
While Child Protection Policy is vital, a Teacher Protection is a must too. Teachers work for almost night and day. A day of contact to a number of students and a lot of school works to accomplish at night like Lesson Logs, Checking of Students’ Output, Making Instructional Materials and others. They also spend their time even weekends for Home Visitations. This is a double burden to married teachers who need to do household chores.
An encounter with almost fifty and above students with different learning styles and attitudes has never been an easy task. Few months ago, cases of teacher abuse were reported. A teacher was stabbed by her student bringing her to death.
House Bill 5735 gained different reactions among netizens upon its publication over the internet. It may seem to oppose Child Protection Policy, but actually it will only require the Department of Education (DepEd) to issue policies and principles on student discipline and classroom management. Those policies of course should not violate the rights of children but should limit only actions against teachers.
This Bill will be a hope of educators to uplift the quality of education which is the main aim of DepEd. Students equipped with knowledge and good attitude will be the true hopes of this country.