DepEd hiring 65,000 teachers, staff for K to 12 as Grade 12 begins this year
The Department of Education (DepEd) is hiring more than 65,000 teachers and non-teaching staff for public schools nationwide to ensure the smooth implementation of the K to 12 program this year.
As the DepEd rolls out Grade 12 this coming June, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the additional teachers and staff will strengthen the implementation of the K to 12 program, with the 25 percent increase in its budget allocation this year.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) had earlier announced that the DepEd will be receiving the biggest allocation among all the executive departments this year at P543.2 billion.
The DBM had noted that “the shortage crisis in teachers and non-teaching staff is seen as a major cause of the declining quality of Philippine education in thousands of public elementary and high schools.”
The DepEd was allocated P19.4 billion for “53,831 teaching positions and 13,280 non-teaching positions” nationwide. This, the DBM said, will allow DepEd “to meet the suggested parameters in class size and student-to-teacher ratios for various grade levels.”
Secretary Briones called on the nation’s teachers “to help students discover new and exciting paths; have them know and love their country more; help them discover things they never knew before; teach them skills they did not yet have; and make them become better human beings and citizens of the country and the world.”
The DepEd will also be getting P118.8 billion for the repair, construction, and acquisition of basic educational facilities, including 47,492 classrooms and 66,492 sets of school seats to accommodate some two million students that have been using makeshift or overcrowded classrooms.
Around P14.4 billion has been allotted to buy 55 million textbooks and instructional materials as well as science and mathematics equipment for 5,449 schools. ## (by Merlina Hernando-Malipot, mb.com.ph)
