Article 4 by MYLENE JOY L. MOLINA School Head

1. RPMS AND ITS MESS
Mylene Joy Lacsao Molina
School Head
One teacher goes around the vacation spots in the Philippines this summer like Boracay, Baguio, and
Bohol bringing along with him a box of portfolios and folders labeled KRA and MOV.
This is but one of the hundreds of memes about the Results-Based Performance Management System
(RPMS) that have been made and shared around Facebook lately. Its acronym has been given different meanings
like Rest in Peace Ma’am and Sir. In the teachers’ group page called Taga-DepEd Ako, many teachers have
posted their rants and disgust against the RPMS.
Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) and Alliance for Concerned Teachers (ACT) together call on DepEd
to stop the implementation of the RPMS for it has brought burden and stress to public teachers. Because of the
RPMS, most teachers cannot fully enjoy the vacation for they are made to accomplish the documents and supports
needed in the RPMS. The RPMS consists of five KRAs with each KRA requiring at least three objectives. Every
objective requires a number of support documents like COT (Classroom Observation Tool), lesson plan, minutes,
attendance, assessment tools, instructional materials, certificates, etc. All these papers and documents will have
to “prove” that the teacher really did perform his or her duties and functions within the school year. Now this was
later labeled by some teachers as “Xerox marathon” for they just have to photocopy the papers required in the
RPMS list with some even fabricating and inventing instant documents.
The RPMS also eats out all the teachers’ time which they could have spent in contact with their pupils.
Because of this, teachers choose to gather the needed support papers and pictures rather than being in the
classroom right in front of the pupils teaching them the competencies. This is so wrong. The teacher’s task is to
teach, not as a secretary or clerk. At the end of the day, it’s the pupils’ performance that will reflect the teachers’
performance.
Maybe we can bring back the PAST (Performance Appraisal System for Teachers) of which all teachers
and school administrators have already familiarized and mastered. I believe we need not change the performance
evaluation system every year. As early as now, teachers are already wondering what they will be made to do next
year. Can they still cope with the demands of that new scheme?
As a school head, I am one with my teachers. Let us not make their lives a hell. Every day, these teachers
report to their classrooms and teach with all the passion despite the various shortcomings of DepEd like the
shortage of K to 12 textbooks, lack of classrooms, booming number of pupils, plus the immortal reports and forms
due on that day. Let us not add another box at their back for them to carry.