TACLOBAN CITY — At least 4,124 new teachers are being hired by the Department of Education (DepEd) this year to address the inadequate number of teaching personnel in public schools across Eastern Visayas region.
DepEd regional office public affairs unit chief Jazmin Calzita said the number of approved teaching positions is based on the teacher needs submitted by DepEd field offices based in six provinces and seven cities.
“The number of new positions is on top of teaching items vacated by personnel who retired in the last school year. The target is to complete the hiring process within the year,” Calzita said.
This year’s hiring will be for teaching positions in elementary and junior high school. Since 2016, the education department has been hiring thousands of teachers for senior high school (SHS).
Most of newly-hired teachers have specialization on Science and Mathematics, as part of the education department’s implementation of the K to 12 education reform program.
The K to 12 program covers Kindergarten and 12 years of basic education to provide sufficient time for mastery of concepts and skills, develop lifelong learners, and prepare graduates for tertiary education, middle-level skills development, employment, and entrepreneurship.
Of the 4,124 new teachers, 1,780 will be for kindergarten and elementary classes, 2,334 for junior high school, and only 10 for SHS.
Broken down to provinces, Leyte has the highest number of teaching positions at 1,291, followed by Northern Samar (657), Samar (602), Eastern Samar (311), Southern Leyte (269), and Biliran (89).
The remaining items are intended for the cities of Ormoc (237), Tacloban (228), Calbayog (170), Baybay (126), Catbalogan (59), Maasin (47), and Borongan (38).
Earlier, the Department of Budget and Management has approved the creation of more than 75,000 new teaching positions nationwide for the new academic year.
The funding requirements to cover the salaries and other forms of compensation for the new positions will be charged against the appropriations for the DepEd. (Sarwell Meniano/PNA)
