DepEd Memorandum No. 291, s.

2008

Guidelines for the Implementation of

CSC Resolution No. 080096 on Working
Hours for Public School Teachers
To:

Undersecretaries
Assistant Secretaries
Bureau Directors
Regional Directors
Schools Division/City Superintendents

1. In response to the request of the Department for the appropriate

interpretation of Section 13 of Republic Act No. 4670, the Magna Carta for Public
School Teachers, the Civil Service Commission issued Resolution No. 080096
(copy enclosed) that:

a. Public school teachers are not exempt from the eight-hour workday provided
for in R.A. No. 1880;

b. The limitation given in R.A. No. 4670 pertains to the time devoted to actual
classroom teaching which shall not exceed six (6) hours a day; and

c. The remaining two (2) hours of work to complete the required eight-hour
workday may be spent within or outside the school premises subject to the
guidelines of the Secretary of Education.

3. In view thereof, the following general guidelines shall be observed in all public
elementary and secondary schools:
a. Public school teachers shall render at most six (6) hours of actual classroom
teaching a day, except when undertaking academic activities that require
presence outside the school premises, i.e., educational trips;

b. School heads shall assign teaching loads to public school teachers to fully
utilize the six (6) hour actual classroom teaching, i.e., six teaching loads at one
hour per teaching load, with due regard for possible teaching intervals;

All advisorship and/or special assignments for the entire school year combined
shall be considered as one teaching load;

c. A teacher with less than six (6) hours of actual classroom teaching shall render
additional hours of appropriate teaching-related activities and duties enumerated
in 2 (d) within the school premises to complete six (6) hours;

d. A teacher with six (6) hours of actual classroom teaching and/or equivalent
teaching-related activities and duties shall render the remaining two (2) hours of
work within or outside the school premises to comply with the eight-hour
workday by engaging in the following teaching-related activities and duties:

 preparation of lesson plans, action/work plans, instructional

materials, evaluation/assessment tools/rubrics;
 preparation and checking of exercises; recording of academic
performance results and classroom accomplishments;
 conduct of research;
 attendance to seminars, workshops and similar programs;
 counseling, mentoring, coaching of students including home visits;
 consultations and conferences with parents;
 performance of coordination activities and duly recognized
community social services;
 participation in the maintenance and improvement of school
facilities and equipment: and
 other activities identified in the specific guidelines under paragraph
4 below.
3. In the exigencies of the service, a public school teacher may be required to
render more than six (6) hours of actual classroom teaching or more than eight
(8) hours of work in a day; Provided that additional compensation computed at
the same hourly rate of the regular compensation, plus a premium of twenty-five
percent (25) of the hourly rate shall be paid for actual classroom teaching in
excess of six (6) hours and for work performed in excess of eight (8) hours.

Overtime pay can only be claimed for actual teaching and/or work performed
within the school premises. In the event of non-availability of funds, service
credits shall be granted and one hour overtime work shall be 1.25 hours for
purposes of determining the service credits.

4. In addition to the general guidelines herein provided, specific guidelines shall

be formulated at the school level taking into account the unique conditions in
schools such as the shifting of classes, if applicable, the availability of faculty
rooms, classrooms and teachers, and the nature of the teaching-related duties to
be given priority.

Decisions on this matter shall be agreed upon in meetings with representatives of

the school administration, teachers, students and parents, preferably through the
School Governing Council or any established mechanism for school-community
partnership.

5. Regional Directors and Schools Division Superintendents are directed to

monitor and evaluate the over-all performance of schools to ensure that the
implementation of this scheme for working hours of teachers shall redound to
the efficient and effective delivery of educational services.

6. Immediate and wide dissemination of this Memorandum is desired.

JESLI A. LAPUS
Secretary
 Government Teachers’ Work Hours
Resolution No. 080096
Jesli A. Lapus, Secretary, Department of Education (DepEd), in a letter dated
September 12, 2006 and received by the Commission on September 25, 2006,
requests the Commission’s reexamination of two (2) CSC Resolutions relative to
Teachers’ Working Hours, CSC Resolution No. 91-1019 dated August 22, 1991
and CSC Resolution No. 94-5824 dated October 24, 1994.

In his letter, Lapus stated as follows:

xxx

The Department of Education Is currently being bombarded by myriad of issues

pertaining to the proper interpretation of Section 13 of Republic Act No. 4670 or
the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers which provide as follows:

Sec. 13. Teaching Hours. Any teacher engaged in actual classroom

instruction shall not be required to render more than six hours of actual
classroom teaching a day, which shall be so scheduled as to give him time
for the preparation and correction of exercises and other work incidental
to his normal teaching duties: Provided, however, That where the
exigencies of the service so require, any teacher may be required to render
more than six hours but not exceeding eight hours of actual classroom
teaching a day upon payment of additional compensation at the same
rate as his regular remuneration plus at least twenty-five per cent of his
basic pay.
“We are aware that on October 20, 1994, and August 22, 1991, the Civil Service
Commission issued CSC Resolution No. 94-5824 and CSC Resolution No. 91-
1019. respectively, which provides that: ‘Teachers are not exempted from the 8
hours a day, 5 days a week or a total of 40 hours a week work schedule. It Is
true that RA 1880 provides exemption for schools and the Omnibus Rules
exempts those covered by special laws from the said requirement. The said
provisions, however, are not a grant of exemption. There must be a valid
law expressly granting such exemption. There being no such law, teachers
cannot claim exemption from the said working hours. There is nothing in
the law which limits the hours of work of teachers to only 6 hours. What is
limited to 6 hours is the actual classroom teaching of the teachers. The
school principal can require them to render 8 hours work, 2 hours of which
can be spent In the faculty room to make the necessary preparation and
correction of exercises with regard to their teaching Job.’

“However, there have been endless clamors for the Department of Education to
meticulously study this concern, with the end in view of arriving at a definite
position on the matter, for the observance and guidance of all Public School
Teachers.

“Considering that the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers (R A. 4670) is a law
enacted by Congress for the welfare and protection of the Public School Teachers
nationwide, it is quite ironic if we interpret the law in a manner that is prejudicial
and disadvantageous to their interests. Thus, a clarification on the issue is in
order the soonest possible time.”

XXX

Based on the letter, Secretary Lapus is requesting the Commission to re-examine

the two (2) cited CSC Resolutions and come up with an appropriate interpretation
of Section 13 of Republic Act No. 4670 or the Magna Carta for Public School
Teachers which shall consider the best interests of the public school teachers.

Relative to such, the issues to be resolved are (1) whether teachers are exempted
from the eight-hour work day or forty-hour work week law as provided for in
Republic Act 1880 and (2) If not, whether public school teachers who have spent
six (6) hours of actual classroom teaching may be able to spend his/her
remaining two (2) work hours doing non-classroom teaching work (e.g. 2 hours
for the preparation and correction of exercises) In premises other than the school

Pertinent in the resolution of Secretary Lapus request is Section 5, Rule XVII

(Government Office Hours) of the Omnibus Rules Implementing Title I, Subtitle A,
Book V of the Administrative Code of 1987 which specifically provides, as follows:
xxx

Section 5. Officers and employees of all departments and agencies except

those covered by special laws shall render not less than eight hours of
work a day for five days a week or a total of fo1ty hours a week, exclusive
of time for lunch. As a general rule, such hours shall be from eight o’clock
in the morning to twelve o’clock noon and from one o’clock to five o’clock
in the afternoon on all days except Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays.
xxx

The aforecited section is anchored on Republic Act No. 1880 approved on June
22, 1957 AN ACT TO AMEND THE SECOND PARAGRAPH OF SECTION FIVE
HUNDRED AND SIXTY-TWO AND SECTION FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-
FOUR OF THE REVISED ADMINISTRATIVE CODE. (Re legal hours of labor-
minimum requirement) whose pertinent section provides as follows:

Section 1. Section five hundred and sixty-two, second paragraph, of the

Revised Administrative Code is hereby amended to read as follows:

“Sec. 562. Legal hours of labor minimum requirement.

xxxxxxxxx

“Such hours, except for schools, courts, hospitals and health clinics or
where the exigencies of service so require, shall be as prescribed in the
Civil Service Rules and as otherwise from time to time disposed in
temporary executive orders in the discretion of the President of the
Philippines but shall be eight (8) hours a day, for five (5) days a week or a
total of forty (40) hours a week, exclusive of time for lunch: Provided, That
any employee or laborer now in the employment of the government who
shall suffer a reduction of his weekly or daily wage or compensation
because of a reduction of the number of days or hours of labor in a week,
as provided by this section, subject to the minimum daily or hourly wage
or compensation or pay per piece already fixed under Republic Act
Numbered Six hundred and two, shall be given an automatic increase in
his daily or hourly wage or compensation or in the rate per piece, whose
amount in a week or a day or per piece shall be equal to the diminution
which his daily or hourly or per piece wage or compensation at the time
this Act went into effect shall suffer on account of the reduction of days or
labor to five days a week: And provided, further, That the salaries of
employees received on monthly basis shall not suffer any diminution on
account of the reduction of the number of days of labor a week.”
xxx

At the onset, it appears that the import of the aforecited CSC Rule as
contemplated in the aforecited provision of the law providing for an eight-hour
work day or forty-hour work week is to grant certain government employees
engaged in certain professions an exemption to the generally established rule on
eight-hour work day or forty-hour work week in recognition of the distinctive
work situations they are in.

However, the Commission, in the exercise of its quasi-judicial functions had, in

the past, issued two categorical rulings on teachers’ work hours which essentially
states that there must be a valid law expressly granting such exemption. Thus,
there being no such law, teachers cannot claim exemption from the said
prescribed hours of work. Through the said CSC Resolutions, the view that there
is nothing in the law which limits the hours of work of teachers to only six (6)
hours has been consistently affirmed. Moreover, in the same two previous
resolutions, the Commission affirmed that what is limited to six (6) hours is the
actual classroom teaching work of teachers.

The first CSC Resolution is CSC Resolution No. 91-1019 (Zaragoza, Ma. Lowella,
Bonachita, Mercy, et.al, re Working Hours of Teachers) where the Commission’s
opinion was requested on whether public school teachers are required to render
eight hours of work a day and whether deductions from their salary for the
corresponding undertimes incurred is proper. In this instance, the Commission
ruled that the teachers are not exempt from the eight (8) hours of work provided
for in RA 1880 and what is limited to 6 hours in the RA 4670 is only the actual
classroom teaching. Deductions made from the salary of teachers for the
corresponding undertime are legal.

The second resolution is CSC Resolution Mo. 94-5824 (ACT-Central Luzon, re

Working Hours; Teachers) where the Commission’s opinion was again requested
for the reversion of the working hours of teachers from eight (8) hours a day to
six (6) hours a day in consonance with existing laws and rules. Consistent with the
aforecited CSC Resolution, the Commission denied the instant request of the
Alliance of Concerned Teachers, Central Luzon.

Nevertheless, the Commission recognizes that the Magna Carta for Public School
Teachers (RA 4870) provides the foundation for the protection and the
furtherance of the rights and Interests of public school teachers in the
government service. No reason is more compelling for the government than the
protection of the government’s most valuable resource as exemplified by these
public school teachers by providing them better and more reasonable terms and
conditions of work. This is underscored in Section 1. Item I (Declaration of Policy
Coverage) of RA 4670, which provides, thus:

xxx

“Section 1. Declaration of Policy. It is hereby declared to be the policy of

this Act to promote and improve the social and economic status of
public school teachers, their living and working conditions, their
terms of employment and career prospects in order that they may
compare favorably with existing opportunities in other walks of life, attract
and retain in the teaching profession more people with the proper
qualifications, it being recognized that advance in education depends on
the qualifications and ability of the teaching staff and that education is an
essential factor in the economic growth of the nation as a productive
investment of vital importance.”
XXX

The Commission further recognizes that the work of public school teachers is
distinct if not vital from the rest of other government employees. As the main
contributor in molding the minds of the country’s most valuable resource, its
people, they are expected to perform with utmost commitment, effectiveness and
competency. This may be done if their needs are responded to in a manner that
is most favorable to them but still within the parameters of existing rules.

One way to respond to this need Is to construe certain rules and legislation
providing for the terms and conditions of their work in a reasonable manner. As it
is, public school teachers experience high levels of stress, exhaustion and low
morale while performing their work. This is because it is an acknowledged fact
that the teacher-student ratio in this country is such that teachers bear heavy
teaching load and even handle classes in work shifts. Aggravating this is the lack
of physical infrastructure such as classrooms, faculty rooms and other school
facilities critical in the promotion of better quality education

Public school teachers’ main duties include actual classroom teaching but they
are also expected to prepare their lessons, correct school exercises, counsel,
mentor and guide their students in their day to day activities and most often
participate in school-wide and even community-based activities. In effect, the
hours spent for actual classroom teaching and the abovecited duties and
responsibilities complete and at times even exceed the required 8-hour work day,

Considering the foregoing realities being faced by public school teachers, the
CSC is of the view that the prescribed eight (8) hours of work of public school
teachers may be observed such that the six (6) hours of actual classroom
teaching are spent within the school premises while the two (2) hours for non-
teaching duties may be spent within or outside the school premises, provided
there is a mechanism to account for the teachers’ required output for two (2)
hours as well as a mechanism to evaluate the overall performance of teachers.
The Department of Education (DepEd) shall formulate guidelines to this effect.

WHEREFORE, foregoing premises considered, the Commission

hereby RESOLVES that public school teachers are not exempt from the eight (8)
hours of work provided for in RA 1880 and what is limited to six (6) hours as
provided for in RA 4670 is only the work hours devoted to actual classroom
teaching.
The Commission FURTHER RESOLVES that the remaining two (2) hours work
that complete the public school teachers’ required 8-hour work day may be spent
within or outside the school premises, provided that the Secretary of the
Department of Education shall provide for pertinent guidelines therein.