The Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (Cocopea) on Wednesday warned that many college instructors are in danger of being displaced because of the implementation of the K-to-12 Basic Education Program.

Joseph Noel Estrada, Cocopea executive director, told The Manila Times that one major problem with the K-to-12 program is the retention and displacement of college faculty due to the two-year lag period.

“Because you are offering the new program Grade 11 and 12, you have no idea how many students will enroll at your school for that program,” Estrada said, adding that as a result, many college instructors are in danger of being displaced.

“A lot faculty in the general education subjects for the first two years may lose their jobs. The challenge there for the schools is to absorb them and to assign them to other areas at schools,” he said. “The mere option in addressing that problem is to offer them early retirement.”

“The only way for [the] schools to address these problems is to abide with the existing rules, laws and regulations of the Department of Labor. Of course, the first thing schools should do is to absorb all the faculties that will be displaced because they will lose two years. We still do not know how many items are available for teachers on basic education,” he added.

Meanwhile, Nestor Asuncion, vice chairman for Labor-Education Industry Tripartite Council, said that the only concern on the part of the Department of Labor is to give options to the teachers who will be adversely affected by the program.

“If they [teachers] are entitled to retire, and they want to retire, they should be paid what is provided by the law. If the teachers are not yet retirable, the schools are obligated to absorb them.

This is not optional. It’s automatic, a must!” he said.

Estrada also said that it would be better for public school teachers to have an annualized salary instead of the per unit rate of private school teachers, and that pay rate issues should be addressed mainly to the Department of Labor.

“If you are a college professor and you are about to teach the basic education in high school, your salary will definitely be lower because you get the lower rank though you are highly qualified to teach. That’s why we also want to ask if this can have diminution,” Estrada said.

“We have a non-diminution pay in the Labor Code which says that any benefit and supplement being enjoyed by employees cannot be reduced, diminished, discontinued or eliminated by the employer,” he added.