Teachers can’t do it all
The Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning Program, or Aral, of the Department of Education (DepEd) is a worthwhile and much-needed initiative. It aims to provide remediation lessons to public school students struggling with the fundamentals of reading, science, and math.
Last January, DepEd reported encouraging gains from Aral’s early implementation. Reading readiness scores increased by approximately five points in Grades 3 to 6, while the scores of students in Grades 7 to 10 improved by six to nine points, bringing millions of students closer to grade-level proficiency.
Under DepEd guidelines, Aral summer classes should have a 1:10 teacher-to-learner ratio. To implement the program properly, schools may hire external tutors or tap volunteer teachers, with the 2026 national budget allocating P1.96 billion for their salaries and allowances.
And yet, during its recent implementation, it became evident that many teachers still shouldered much of the work needed to run the program. In online public forums, several DepEd teachers shared their frustrating experiences in helping their schools meet the program requirements.
One teacher shared a screenshot from their group chat showing how teachers were being pressured by their supervisors to volunteer. Since the school had not yet received its Aral budget, it couldn’t hire external tutors. In other schools, teachers who volunteered raised concerns about unclear compensation, as well as the absence of food and transportation allowances. Some said they were promised service credit leaves, but since nothing was signed on paper, they were unsure whether these would actually materialize.
Another shared how the volunteer teachers had to print and procure their own materials. Their school only received the budget a week before implementation. Since the materials still had to go through the bidding process, teachers were asked to spend their money on them and were told they could just be reimbursed for the expenses later.
Representatives from the Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) observed similar issues during their visit to a school in Baseco, where the program could only be implemented for some grade levels because not enough teachers volunteered.
As with any program that requires a nationwide rollout, hiccups and challenges are to be expected. But the frustration of public school teachers is that they are almost always the ones asked to absorb these birth pains. And when they hear in the news that billions have been allocated for the program, it becomes even more difficult not to ask why the promised funding and support are not being felt on the ground.
Unfortunately, this can lead to a significant erosion of trust. In psychology, a psychological contract refers to the unwritten expectations of fairness, support, and mutual reciprocity that people have toward an institution. Applied to this context, public school teachers are not only experiencing implementation fatigue but also a kind of psychological contract breach. When they’re promised support but end up using their own time, money, and goodwill to make the program work, each gap between what was announced and what is actually experienced becomes a small trust withdrawal.
More than anyone, public school teachers see the urgent need to help struggling learners. However, it is easy to be wary of reforms when they have learned, through repeated experience, that every new program often means another demand on their already depleted energy and personal resources. They have lived through too many “great ideas” where the burden is downloaded to them.
This matters even more as various new initiatives are set to be implemented this school year, including a new grading system and the trimester approach. To secure the teachers’ sincere buy-in, they need to feel heard, acknowledged, and supported with clear action points moving forward.
The Aral-related challenges experienced by teachers should be formally documented, communicated to the proper channels, and matched with implementation adjustments to ensure that delays, procurement issues, and resource gaps are avoided. Incentives have to be clear, funds have to arrive on time, and external tutors need to be hired. Teachers who rendered hours during the summer should be compensated and reimbursed promptly for any expenses they incurred.
As another school year begins today, teachers once again face the gargantuan task of responding to the diverse needs of learners, most of whom, as the Edcom 2 report highlighted, are underprepared for the grade levels they are in. Teachers are expected to remediate learning needs, manage overcrowded classrooms, comply with new programs and administrative requirements, and somehow still offer a personalized education to each child.
We cannot keep relying on public school teachers to single-handedly rescue the system. Leaders need to keep listening closely to what is happening on the ground and respond with the urgency, resources, and concrete solutions needed to address implementation gaps.
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