EDITORIAL - DepEd treating teachers like criminals

There seems to be no end to the Department of Education’s bungles.

Just recently, many people including students and teachers were left scratching their heads after DepEd issued Department Order No. 49 where DepEd personnel were told to “avoid relationships, interaction, communication, including following social media with learners outside of the school setting, except if they are relatives.”

DepEd Secretary, Vice President Sara Carpio, has an even worse explanation of the order.

“As a teacher, there has to be a line between him or her and the learner. They should not have friendly relations with their learners outside of the learning institution setting because people develop biases when they become friends with someone,” she said.

As if to add insult, she said added that aside from minimizing biases on the part of teachers, it is to prevent “criminal” incidents from happening.

Two things caught our attention.

The first thing, it seems DepEd doesn’t believe that teachers can set their own social boundaries with students.

Teachers and students have been interacting and having friendly relations outside of school since there have been teachers and students. There is nothing wrong with this. All people are social animals.

We do understand discouraging social media connections between teacher and student. We are actually for this. Your friends in social media are supposed to be your peers and equals, but we all know this isn’t the case all the time. And sometimes when people rant against something or someone, they forget that those who aren’t supposed to read those posts can.

But discouraging relationships outside social media? You cannot stop two people from becoming friends or establishing a close and friendly relationship, no matter the age gap, social standing, or other factors, again with set boundaries.

Also, the order says teachers should avoid “interaction, communication” with students. Are teachers to snub the students they meet outside school? Are they to ignore them, pretend they don’t exist, and walk away? Or turn their back and hide if they see them coming?

We don’t know what kind of experience Vice President Carpio had with her teachers, but acknowledging and even chatting with teachers when people see them in public is perfectly acceptable behavior throughout the world.

The second thing, the DepEd seems to be treating teachers like criminals and opportunists just waiting to take advantage of students.

This actually started two months ago when Carpio wanted DepEd to have confidential funds. It was so that DepEd could conduct “surveillance and intelligence” on, we assume, the teachers.

Carpio should get her head in the game. This is the DepEd; not the police, not the intelligence-gathering agencies.

But then again, what can we expect with a DepEd helmed by someone who has no teaching experience whatsoever and is more interested in enforcing security and espionage than education?