Expedite hiring of teachers – Gatchalian

September 16, 2024 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — With 46,703 unfilled positions in the Department of Education (DepEd), Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian has reiterated the need to expedite the hiring of teachers and non-teaching personnel.

Hiring teachers could take up to six months, Gatchalian said, with the involvement of agencies such as the Civil Service Commission and the Department of Budget and Management.

“The number of teachers we need continues to grow with our student population and filling 26,000 vacant positions would help address the teacher shortage,” he said during the Senate finance committee hearing on the DepEd’s proposed 2025 budget.

As of May 24, the DepEd’s unfilled positions are 46,703, with teaching positions comprising 58 percent or 26,984.

For fiscal year 2025, the agency plans to create 20,000 new teaching positions.

While the National Expenditure Program (NEP) allocates P5.50 billion for these new positions, the DepEd says it is short of 56,050 teachers, which requires P15.4 billion.

Administrative officers also need to be hired to reduce teachers’ non-teaching workload, Gatchalian noted.

In its Year One report, the Second Congressional Commission on Education highlighted that public school teachers are burdened with over 50 administrative and ancillary tasks.

DepEd Order No. 02 s. 2024 ordered the immediate removal of public school teachers’ administrative tasks.

“Next year, we will be hiring 10,000 administrative officers, considering that we have about 43,000 schools. That’s about a fourth of our schools having administrative officers,” Gatchalian said.

The NEP allocates P3.43 billion for the hiring of non-teaching positions. The DepEd said it needs 20,668 non-teaching personnel, which would cost P7.9 billion.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara earlier assured the Senate finance panel that the agency directed the schools divisions, where hiring takes place to speed up the process.