TEACHERS should have 60 days of rest period, and not 30 days, after the end of the school year, a teachers’ group said yesterday.
The Teachers Dignity Coalition (TDC) issued this statement in reply to the remark of Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte that teachers will have a 30-day break after the end of school year 2023-2024 and they will not be given any volunteer work during the period.
“We made sure that in this year’s school calendar, teachers will have 30 straight days of rest during the break without any DepEd activity that requires volunteer work. All activities with voluntary participation are scheduled after the said 30-day break,” Duterte said during the September 5 kick-off of the National Teachers’ Month celebration in Bohol.
Duterte said regional and division officials and school heads will be made to answer if any teacher complains that they are being tasked to do volunteer work or report to school within the period.
But the TDC said the 30 days would violate the DepEd’s own rules on end-of-school-year break (EOSY) and the Commission on Civil Service which provides a 60-day break.
“The 60-day summer vacation or end-of-school-year break is established under CSC and DepEd rules,” the group said.
Under the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers and Section 6 of CSC Omnibus Rules under Memorandum Circular No.41, series of 1998, teachers are entitled to 70 days of summer vacation leave plus 14 days of Christmas vacation.
CSC rules also state that teachers cannot be compelled to report to school if they opt to spend the whole EOSY break on vacation.
Reporting to school during the same period is voluntary in nature, hence teachers who are made to report to school during the EOSY are provided service credits.
The DepEd, in an advisory, warned the public about a fake memorandum circulating online that teachers will be granted a two-week worth of rest days as part of the celebration of National Teachers Month which will culminate on Oct. 5.
The department said it already “tapped authorities to investigate the source of this fake memorandum following its malicious use of the Department’s issuance template.”
