Dr. Martha A. Mogol, NOPTI president, reported during the national conference of schools superintendents held at the Bohol Tropical Resort in this city that the teacher hiring rules indicated in DepEd Order No. 16, s. 2005, appear to violate some provisions of Republic Act No. 7836 also known as the Professionalization of Teaching in the Philippines Act.

Mogol, former director of DepEd’s Bureau of Secondary Education (BSE), claimed that the order gives low priority to Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) passers with a 75 percent rating (who total over 30 percent of some 100,000 LET qualifiers) compared to those who have higher passing marks.

The same order, Mogol said, also gives LET passexrs who graduated from provincial teacher-education schools lower points in the ranking of applicants than those from prominent institutions in Metro Manila and other urban areas.

Mogol said these hiring rules are not only unjust to and discriminatory against affected qualified teacher-applicants but are also violative of RA 7836, which never stipulates anything against those with 75 percent LET rating or those who finished their teaching courses from provincial schools.

She stressed that while NOPTI supports DepEd’s argument of "getting the best among qualified teacher applicants," this should never be to the extent of disregarding RA 7836 and other related laws which, undoubtedly, are always over and above any department order.

Mogol maintained that success in teaching is hardly measured by one’s rating in a government test nor by the school where one graduated but more by one’s dedication and commitment to her or his job.