Teachers' Practice on Childrens Rights

The objective of this study is to determine the extent of practice of teachers in integrating human rights educationwith focus on Children’s Rights in their subject matter and its relationship to the level of human rights awareness of 4th year students in selected public high schools in Bacolod City. 

This study used Descriptive survey research. The instrument scales to conduct surveys for students were formulated and developed (Rabeje, 2003) in order to ascertain the basic areas in relation to human rights education. Furthermore, to determine the extent of practice of teachers in integrating human rights in their subject matter areas, a survey was also conducted using the questionnaire constructed by the researcher.

Moreover, Qualitative data was used to reinforce the surveys on the practices of teachers. The researcher interviewed the teachers of different areas of curriculum such as Social Studies, Filipino, English, Values Education, Science and Math of the three (3) public high schools of Bacolod City. The purpose of the interview is to know the programs/activities of the school regarding human rights specifically on children’s rights and the extent in which they integrate Child’s rights in their everyday lesson. The researcher also conducted a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) which was participated by the student-respondents from the three public schools. The purpose ofthe FGD is to validate the extent of practice of teachers’ integration of human rights specifically children’s rightsin their respective subject areas and the result of the level of children’s rights awareness survey given to student-respondents.

To meet the objective, the study revealed that data gathered and the responses of the students and teachers during the FGD, there is a strong relationship between the extent of practices of teachers inintegrating children’s rights in their subject areas to the level of awareness of students on their rights. Statistically, Table 18 shows that the computed Pearson r value was 0.94 which was interpreted as “very high correlation”. Thus, this result would imply that there is a significant relationship between the extent of practice of teachers on integrating children’s rights on their subject areas and the level of children’s rights awareness of the students.

The responses during the FGD, the experiences shared by the teachers during the interview and the activities appeared in the lesson plan lead to the conclusion that Teachers’ Practice has a great effect on students especially on the awareness of their rights. Teachers also influenced the increased of students’ participation in various activities where they can exercise and practice their own right.

Based on the findings, the researcher recommends that the programs and projects on human rights should include more seminars and trainings for the teachers. All courses should design programs with the theme about human rights awareness and not rely only on courses like Social Studies and Values Education. Lastly, more researches should be conducted to further determine the extent of practice of teachers on integrating Children’s Rights on their subject areas not only in Bacolod City but in other schools in the Philippines.