Rationale

DepEd order no. 49: A wall between students and teachers

As response to the spreading of Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) the education sector was

forcibly shut down and everyone had to stay at their homes. As of now, face-to-face classes are

finally available and students can learn and communicate with their respective teachers in the

easiest way possible again. Until the implementation of DepEd Order No. 49 s. 2022 by Vice

President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte, which states that it must be preferred to keep

professionalism between the students and the teachers. Even though they've been longing for a

connection with their educator—the law is law it's everyone's responsibility to follow.

Moreover, According to the DepEd order No. 49 teachers must "avoid relationships,

interaction, and communication, including following social media with learners outside of the

school setting, except if they are relatives." The law is trying to prevent any interaction between

the students and the teacher even though teachers are known to be the student's second parent

figure. Especially, during the pandemic, a huge number of Filipino children developed mental

illnesses and one way to prevent such illnesses is to communicate with someone you are

comfortable with.

Approximately 40% of youth below 18 years old have been experiencing mental health

issues since the start of the pandemic and partially 12% of teens had attempted suicide

according to the world health organization (WHO). This kind of issue should've been the one

DepEd paid more attention to, as well as the other much bigger academic problems we're

currently experiencing.

However, in one of the interviews with VP Duterte, she said "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." This can be a tool as well for protecting the teachers and

specially the students. After all, there are activities between the learners and teachers that might

cause criminal activities, biases, illegal relationships between the students, and other

unnecessary activities that are prohibited.

In one case, a 32-year-old teacher in Tacloban city was stabbed to death by his 19 years old

senior high student while on a drinking spree. In other cases, teachers and their minor students

were allegedly in an illegal relationship because they were seen hanging out outside the school

setting. These are just some of the cases that should never be a part of the relationship

between students and teachers should be.

Moreover, there should really be a line for the students and teachers from this kind of setup,

because with too much interaction with students they tend to treat teachers with less respect

and even invade their privacy.

Even though the government could've handled such problems more efficiently, so that no

issues, such as the mental health of students being ignored, prevail and everyone is able to look

forward to better effects this order might provide as a way to prevent further problems. After all,

professionalism is something to apply to prevent people from doing something recklessly.