By TONY PE. RIMANDO
The worsening shortage of teachers in public elementary and secondary schools nationwide is expected to be partially resolved with the scheduled hiring by the Department of Education (DepEd) of 10,000 new mentors for school year 2005-2006 which opens on June 6.
Education Secretary Florencio Abad said the necessary appropriation for the new teacher positions is included in the recently approved 2005 DepEd budget totalling over
R135 billion.
Abad said the public schools have an accumulated shortage of close to 30,000 teachers which the DepEd is trying its best to lessen every year so as not to adversely affect the delivery of basic education.
The Education department’s efforts to resolve the teacher lack problem is often being stymied by the annual increase of enrolment in public elementary and high schools, Abad said.
Education Undersecretary for Finance and Administration Juan Miguel Luz said secondary school enrolment goes up annually by about five percent while that of elementary schools rises by over one percent.
Luz said the recruitment of new teachers is now being undertaken by different provincial and city schools divisions following appropriate DepEd guidelines.
The guidelines, Luz said, involve, among others, the localized ranking of qualified teacher-applicants by elementary and high school principals who later recommend to the schools division superintendent the most ranking applicant for possible employment in a public school needing an additional mentor.
Luz said the schools superintendent is the DepEd field executive authorized to hire and appoint new teachers in a particular province or city following department employment rules and regulations.
According to Luz, the new teacher positions will be distributed proportionately by congressional districts in a province or city to ensure their proper allocation based on teacher need data submitted by field school officials to the DepEd central office in Pasig City.
The Education undersecretary for finance and administration said a newly hired public elementary or secondary school teacher starts with a salary grade of 11 with an initial monthly compensation of about
R10,000, including chalk allowance, clothing allowance, Christmas bonus, 13th month pay, year-end bonus, and Personal Emergency Relief Allowance (PERA).
Abad is expecting an increase in the student population of public elementary and secondary schools where education is guaranteed free by the Constitution when the new school year starts in the first Monday of June.
"We certainly expect several millions of additional enrolment at both levels in school year 2005-2006," Abad said, adding that "we will be constrained to adopt various necessary alternative measures to ensure that all enrolling school children will be accommodated in public schools."
