By ANGELO G. GARCIA
October 1, 2010, 4:47pm
MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) recently signed partnerships with various organizations to help improve teacher welfare, focusing on healthcare and a housing project in Daet, Camarines Norte.
“The welfare and benefits of our employees, particularly our teachers, take paramount priority in the department. Today, we show the people how we value our teachers,” said Education Secretary Armin Luistro. “Your government wants to provide our dear teachers the benefits they very well deserve.”
DepEd signed a memorandum of agreement with Bayer Philippines, Inc., Philippine Heart Association, Inc. (PHA) and Philippine Society of Hypertension, Inc. (PSH).
With the limited number of school medical officers and school nurses nationwide, the department cannot adequately attend to all the health needs of the students and DepEd personnel. With this collaboration, “BP ng Teacher Ko Alaga Ko”, DepEd will create greater awareness on the health concerns of its teachers.
DepEd, together with Bayer Philippines, PHA, and PHS, aims to establish awareness and initiate means to counter the prevalence of hypertension among public school teachers. Specifically, the project aims to increase teachers’ level of appreciation of the importance of blood pressure monitoring and healthy lifestyles; educate teachers on the causes, effects and management of hypertension; promote healthy lifestyle behaviors related to blood pressure control; and initiate medical treatment to diagnosed hypertensive and diabetic teachers.
The agreement entails that PHA and PHS provide educational materials pertaining to hypertension and healthy lifestyle and videos to be utilized during lectures, workshops and counselling.
They will also submit a report or assessment of the project to DepEd and Bayer Philippines and list of diagnosed hypertensive, diabetic and dyslipidemic patients after the initial treatment for further management and follow-up of DepEd.
On the other hand, Bayer Philippines headed by its general manager, Sang Noh, agreed to provide necessary support for teachers such as supplies, equipment and personnel, among others.
The project will run for a year and this will be limited to public elementary teachers and non-teaching personnel where 300 beneficiaries with an additional 50 stand-by teachers for replacement will be selected per site.
Meanwhile, through the generosity of the local government of the Municipality of Daet, under the leadership of Mayor Tito S. Sarion in collaboration with Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) – Smart Communications, led by its Board of Trustees Chairman Manuel Pangilinan and President Rene Meily, local teachers can now have their home sweet homes.
“When we provide teachers opportunities to own their homes, we not only alleviate their living conditions by offering their family’s security and stability, but we also boost their morale to do their best in delivering quality education to our youth,” told Luistro.
Through Project Shelter, DepEd aims to provide teachers and non-teaching personnel the opportunity to acquire their own homes through affordable schemes. Hence, DepEd personnel, particularly, public school teachers in Daet, Camarines Norte will soon have a house and lot they truly own.
In November 2008, DepEd-LGU Daet and the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig Fund) entered into a MOA for the “Teachers’ Farm Village” socialized housing project for public school teachers and other non-teaching personnel in Daet where completion of its First Cluster’s site development is in need of funding support.
With this current situation, PLDT-Smart Communications has signified its desire to partner with DepEd and the LGU Daet through its Gabay Guro (2G) to provide financial assistance of P3M that would help facilitate the implementation of the project.
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