Department of Education regional director Carolino Mordeno said that local officials in the region had helped the department address the constant problem of teacher shortage.
Mordeno added that presently, more than 200 public school teachers are needed in the elementary level and at least 700 teachers are needed in the secondary level based on the records at the DepEd regional office.
The region has currently at least 24,869 public elementary school teachers and 8,339 secondary schools.
Mordeno said that to address the problem, most of the local chief executives have created local items for teachers and that some do not have to depend on the special education fund to hire teachers, as they get the budget from their general funds.
The special education fund is derived from one percent of the local government unit's realty tax.
Mordeno said that the assistance extended by the local officials has reduced the problem on teacher deficit by 20 percent.
Dalaguete town mayor Ronald Allan Cesante, the president of the Cebu Municipal Mayors League, earlier disclosed that the towns in the province are willing to hire teachers with the salaries taken from the local coffers.
Cesante said that in fact, town mayors are using this practice because the shortage of teachers is perennial problem every school year.
Last year, town mayors in Cebu hired 800 high school teachers using their SEF budget.
To solve the scarcity of teachers and accommodate the expected one to two percent rise in the number of enrollees in both the elementary and high school level this year, Mordeno said that the department has a policy of satisfying the teacher-student ratio of 1:60.
Mordeno, however, admitted that some classes, particularly in high school, have over 65 students. - Jasmin R. Uy