Long ballot count may affect teachers summer classes - Recto
Govt to spend P1B to upgrade skills of 175,000 math, science mentors

Thousands of public school teachers will go back to school this summer but elections might interfere with their education, Sen. Ralph Recto said in warning about a troubling overlap in the summer school and election calendars. Recto said almost a billion pesos is allocated in the P1.126 trillion national budget for the year for the training of math, science and English teachers About 172,000 teachers and 4,900 supervisors have been lined up to attend refresher and improvement classes in the said subjects , which will be conducted in state colleges and right in their own schools.

The year-round program will kick off this summer so teachers can take advantage of the school break to earn Masteral units in teaching or attend seminars, such as the ones traditionally held in Teachers Camp in Baguio City.

But the problem, according to Recto, is that the summer classes of teachers coincide with May 14 polls, a case, he adds, of politics possibly getting in the way of learning.

The Commission on Elections had said it would rely principally on DepEds 520,975 teaching and nonteaching personnel in manning the 216,382 clustered precincts 65 days from now.

As election workhorses, teachers normally need three days before and three days after the election day to prepare and wrap up work related to their duties as precinct officials, Recto said.

But what if the count takes too long , and stretch to a week, which is not uncommon in this land of slow-motion tabulation? What will happen to their studies? Recto said.

To avert any disruption in teachers trainings this summer, Recto urged Education officials to schedule in-service seminars around the May 14 polling date.

As to teachers attending Masteral classes, Recto said representation must be made by DepEd with the Commission on Higher Education and the heads of state colleges to give consideration to teachers who will render poll duties.

The enactment of the P1.126 trillion national budget for 2007 will pave the way for release of P940 million for the training, scholarships and fellowships of teachers to improve their competencies in math, science and English and in turn arrest declining test performance of students in these fields.