Teachers’ voices

We have many things we want to do in our education system now more than ever. Sometimes, we want them to happen overnight. When the marching orders are given by the captain, the rest of the ship is expected to navigate in that direction. Ideally, this is visionary and monumental. But we have to remember that education policies, to be effective, like what the World Bank suggests, should be clear, doable, and fulfilling.

Some teachers are leaving our public schools to work abroad, not because they no longer want to teach Filipino children, but because they have families to feed and dreams to fulfill.

Not only are salaries not enough to raise a family, but the workload remains overwhelming despite the order to reduce administrative tasks for teachers. One must not forget that being in the classroom is only a part of teaching. Teachers need to plan their lessons before they meet their students. They also need to grade papers and plan for the next lesson. Even seasoned teachers know it is not an easy task because learners are becoming increasingly diverse.

One day, teachers need to accomplish a certain task. The next day, they have to do another. Eventually, they no longer have time to focus on what essentially matters—teaching their students. Teaching requires that teachers have all the time in the world and full autonomy over what, how, and when to teach their lessons. Teachers are more empowered when they do what they know is best in their classrooms rather than following what others think they should be doing.

Change must happen with the loudest voices coming from teachers in the field. After all, they are the ones who know their learners and where they are coming from. They do the job even beyond the required working hours. If there are experts who know how to teach, evaluate their work, and reflect on how they can improve their practice, it is none other than the teachers themselves.

I am not saying that reforms are not needed. They are inevitable in a society that is constantly changing and whose way of living becomes more challenging. Reforms are needed to finally abandon what is no longer working, so we can have spaces for new and promising ones. Doing new actions without replacing old practices will only magnify teachers’ workload. Less is more.

Reforms may empower teachers, but they may also make them comply, or worse, resist change. When it becomes too overwhelming, it can be hard to handle. It’s like ordering in a restaurant—you cannot order all you want, or else you will have indigestion.

People should not take for granted what teachers are already doing. If teachers have more tasks to do, they may not have enough time to accomplish everything. Even computers lag when we run many applications at the same time. Teachers need more autonomy to choose their battles and keep only the ones worth fighting for. If empowerment is possible, we want more of that.

Teachers should not only be given technical assistance but also the chance to collaborate and make their own innovations depending on the needs of their learners, which they can only do if they have enough time, resources, trust, and support.

Giving legislators and those who are detached from the classroom to decide what should happen in schools is like trusting a nonpilot to fly the airplane. It is both frightening and dangerous. The heart, mind, and hands of education reform are the teachers. At the end of the day, teachers are the ones who enter the classroom, meet the students, and make a difference, one student at a time.

Listening to teachers’ voices will not solve all the problems, but it can be a game changer. Whenever we raise the concern of improving the quality of education, many of us associate it with improving the quality of our teachers. However, this should begin by listening to the voices of nearly a million public school teachers across the nation. There is hope that listening to them will help address the real root problems with effective solutions.

Many untold stories are out there where teachers exit their classrooms with eureka moments and stories of success with their students, which cannot be measured with test scores or reflected in any form of required means of verification.

Our former students who are working in their respective fields right now are successful because, once upon a time, they had teachers who had all the time to connect with them.

—————-

Khristian Ross P. Pimentel graduated from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines Laboratory High School, the Philippine Normal University, and the University of the Philippines Diliman, where he is completing his Ph.D. He works as a public school teacher in Antipolo City.