As the nation looks forward to the opening of classes, an education official said that the Cordillera region lacks public school teachers.

BY LYN V. RAMO
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 17 June 3-9, 2007

BAGUIO CITY (246 kms. north of Manila) – As the nation looks forward to the opening of classes, an education official said that the Cordillera region lacks public school teachers.

Department of Education (DepEd) OIC (Officer-in-Charge) Regional Director Benito Tumamao, in a weekly media forum, noted the need for 84 more teachers in the region. He said that Baguio City and Benguet lack 28 teachers; Ifugao, 22; Kalinga, 13; Mountain Province, 11; Apayao, seven; and Abra, three.

“More out-of-school youth are encouraged to go back to school (so) we should hire more teachers,” Tumamao appealed to the national government. He said that there are teachers who would be forced to handle two different classes simultaneously if the government does not address the problem.

Tumamao said DepEd has asked the city government to support the salaries of at least 14 new teachers to fill in the “natural vacancy.” He fears the quality of education would suffer if teachers are forced to absorb more work to cope with the shortage.

He said that this is a nationwide experience and the public school teacher shortage in the Cordillera is not isolated.

In the Cordillera, it is already common to see teachers handling two classes, based on data from the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT). In an earlier report, Bulatlat cited an ACT study which shows that as of school year 2005-2006, there is a need to hire 49,699 new teachers, build 57,930 classrooms and provide 3.48 million seats to the students. To do these, the DepEd needs to earmark P54.13 billion ($983.1million based on the 2005 average exchange rate of $1:P55.06).

The 2007 national budget allocated P1.13 billion ($23.5 million based on the average exchange rate of $1:P48.09 for the period January-May 2007) for education to include an allocation that would ensure the hiring of competent teachers to eradicate the existing shortage of public school teachers nationwide.

An additional budget of P873 million ($18.2 million) was allocated for the creation of additional teaching positions that would effectively wipe out the shortage of public school teachers in the country. The total allocation for new teachers stands at almost P2 billion as of January this year ($40.89 million based on the month’s average exchange rate of $1:P49.10), according to Sen. Franklin Drilon, chair of the Senate Committee on Finance. Northern Dispatch / Posted by(Bulatlat.com)

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