Gov’t hiring over 61,000 teachers this year

MANILA, Philippines - The government is hiring more than 61,000 new teachers and will redeploy selected mentors this year, the Department of Education (DepEd) announced yesterday.

DepEd said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) approved 61,510 new teacher items for fiscal year 2013.

The DBM will also provide funding for the redeployment of teachers from schools with excess teacher items to those with shortages.

Based on DepEd Order No. 23, series of 2013, teachers to be redeployed shall receive a one-time redeployment allowance of P18,000.

The order also said that heads of schools with excess mentors are tasked to prepare an inventory of teaching staff that contains information on the grade or year levels being handled and subjects being taught by the excess teachers.

The list of teachers should be organized in ascending order, the first on the list being the most junior.

Teachers from schools with excess items may express willingness to be redeployed by writing a letter of intent to their division or city superintendents. The superintendents can also require teachers on the surplus list to be redeployed.

Enroll early

Education Secretary Armin Luistro is urging parents to enroll their children before the opening of classes on June 3.

He noted that the DepEd has recorded around 80 percent of enrollees for public elementary and high school for school year 2013-2014.

“The remaining 20 percent will enroll during class opening and they are the ones who argue with the teachers. Of course they don’t know the sections where their children are assigned,” Luistro said.

The DepEd has issued Order No. 10, declaring an early opening of classes in public schools on June 3 and the last day of classes on March 31, 2014. Semestral break is set on Oct. 28 to 31. There will be a total of 201 school days this school year.

Luistro said private schools may deviate from the June 3 class opening, but should not come later than the last day of August.