Dep-Ed to hire new 30,000 teachers next year

by Chino Leyco (Story: Excerpts from Manila Bulletin; Title: ours)

A Filipino Teacher demonstrating before her class. (Photo taken from interaksyon.com)

The national government will hire more than 30,000 elementary and secondary teachers for the coming school year, the Department of Budget and Management said yesterday.

In a statement, Budget and Management Secretary Florencio B. Abad said the government has released P9.52 billion last January to the Department of Education (DepEd) for the creation of 31,335 elementary and secondary teaching positions for School Year 2014-2015.

Abad said the fund release will cover the fund requirements for Teacher I positions nationwide.

“The release gives DepEd the go signal for jump-starting the hiring process immediately, with all positions ideally filled out by April 1, 2014, in time for the beginning of classes,” DBM said.

Of the 31,335 positions, 13,738 new teachers will be hired at the elementary level (Grades 1 to 6), while 17,597 personnel are designated at the secondary level (Grades 7 and 8, YR III and IV).

Region IV-A will hire the most number of teachers with 4,809 positions, followed by Region III with 3,754 and Region VII with 3,425 future hires.

“Hiring more teachers is essential to the administration’s goal of improving the teacher-to-student ratio in our education system. For a long time, Philippine public schools were crippled by a shortage of teachers who can amply guide our schoolchildren in their academic pursuits,” Abad said.

“The P9.52-billion release will give DepEd enough funding legroom to close the 33,194-teacher gap in public schools by 2015. It’s not just a matter of enhancing our public education system, but also of giving our students the chance to learn from qualified instructors who can equip them with skills that will be useful beyond the classroom,” he added.

DepEd has set standards to determine teacher requirements for different levels of education, such as setting the Teacher-Pupil Ratio of one teacher for an ideal number of students per class:

According to DepEd standards, in Kindergarten, one teacher should have 25 to 35 students, while Elementary Multigrade should have one teacher for less than 30 students and Elementary Monograde should have one teacher for 40-50 students for Grades I-II; 1 teacher for 45-55 students for Grades III-IV; 1 teacher for 45-55 students for Grades V-VIII; and 1 teacher for 45-55 students for Secondary Level Years III-IV

“Education continues to be the government’s best bet in empowering the poor and opening up opportunities for their future employment,” Abad said.

“Along with the implementation of the extended Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) this year, the administration’s work of addressing our public education gaps remains key in our bid for swift, sustainable, and inclusive growth, where Filipinos can truly benefit from the country’s economic gains,” he added.