A militant teacher’s group called on the Department of Education (DepEd) to allocate more funds to build classrooms and school buildings rather than spend more money for mandatory drug testing in schools.
“I don’t have problem with drug testing, but for me it’s a waste of time and money. We need additional equipment like chairs and classrooms. In fact in Abellana School, there are classrooms that don’t have chairs,” said Antonia Lim, president of the Alliance for Concerned Teachers (ACT) regional chapter.
Instead of spending P4 billion for drug tests, Lim said these tests should be done on teachers suspected of using drugs.
But DepEd regional information officer Amaryllis Villarmia said all teachers are mandated to submit themselves for drug test. She said students in areas that are identified as drug hotspots undergo random drug tests.
“That’s why secretary (Leonor) Briones didn’t agree with the proposal of the PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) to implement mandatory drug testing to grade 4 students and above because this might have psychological effect to the learners,” she said.
Villarmia said the mandatory drug test for public school teachers had yet to be conducted. She said DepEd’s biggest concern is the timely completion of projects for the students.
“Bidding itself consumes time and after winning, suppliers are given only 120 days to completely deliver the equipment, otherwise, DepEd can nullify the contract,” Villarmia said.