Teacher-Student Relationships: Blurring The Line

          Every promulgation is not perfect. There will always have a pros and cons. Last November 2, 2022, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte issued DepED Order No. 49 s. of 2022 which change DepEd Order No. 47 series of 2022 or the “Promotion of Professionalism in the Implementation and Delivery of Basic Education Programs and Services.” As stated in, DepEd told its officials and personnel to “avoid relationships, interaction, and communication, including following social media with learners outside of the school setting, except if they are relatives.” The main point of the order is to maintain the professional environment. This became the trending topic since they issued this order. 

          From my point of view, there are advantages and disadvantages with this new DepED Order. Starting with the advantages given by some of my fellow students, not everyone have a good teachers, most teachers use their power to manipulate the minds of students wherein it could lead to harassment or grooming. Numerous cases of indecent accident had been reported, the statistics says 5.3% of sexual abuse was done in school. We can't neglect it. This is one of the main objectives of the order, to avoid students to be abused in any kind of aspects and to maintain the boundaries between teachers and learners. Some students are proud with their teachers but the law also wants to prioritize those who are harmed.

          In the other dimension, there are also disadvantages of this new law, especially to those students who already found their shoulder buddy which are their teachers. Some students are from broken family, while others do not have a parents and live with their immediate relatives. Sometimes they are experiencing difficulties and the only person they could run on is their teacher. Some students also have other problems, there are circumstances that some students are voluntarily sharing their problems at home to their teacher. Once a student feels that the teacher appreciates what they do, they’ll trust them more. That’s when the bond became more stronger. We know that emotional attachment to our teachers has an important role in learning yet we should be objective in this order that we should always maintain professional behavior in teacher-student relationships in personal life & outside school setting.

          We can’t deny the fact that the new DepED order has its purpose, you can have a good relationship with your teacher but with limitations. It says "Avoid" not totally stop, you can still be friends with teachers but know your limitations. Teachers be still a parents but with boundary to promote professionalism within the school. The purpose of it is to emphasize the professionalism. This DepEd order is a way of prevention of any misconduct between teachers and students. To minimize the problem, the root must have limit.