DepEd to hire 10k new teachers, 5k non-teaching staff under 2020 budget

PASIG CITY, September 2, 2019 – Under its proposed 2020 budget, the Department of Education (DepEd) plans to recruit 10,000 public school teachers and 5,000 non-teaching personnel.

The move is part of DepEd’s commitment to further improve teacher-to-student ratio, enhance learning, and ease the workload of its personnel given increasing enrolment levels in public schools nationwide.

“More than being part of our 10-point agenda, we want to stay true to our word that the Department is relentless in finding ways to enhance personnel welfare, while at the same time improving delivery of quality education,” Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones said.

To finance personnel recruitment, DepEd is allocating P1.28 billion for the creation of 5,000 new non-teaching positions and PhP 1.27 billion for the hiring of 10,000 teachers next year. The new hires will be assigned to different field offices and schools.

Teachers will likewise benefit from the doubling of the budget for DepEd’s Computerization Program (DCP). In 2020, DCP will receive P8.99 billion covering 4,300 e-classroom packages and 42,010 multimedia packages for schools. The said packages will aid our teachers in enhancing delivery of learning in the classrooms. This is a 105.4% increase from DCP’s P4.38-billion budget in 2019.

The DCP is aimed at providing the appropriate technologies to all public schools to enhance the teaching-learning process and to enable both teachers and learners to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It also provides relevant information technology structure, networking facilities, and information systems to all levels of governance of the Department.

“We recognize the need to provide our teaching and non-teaching personnel with work conditions that will enable them to deliver quality basic education for all. Steadily, we’re ensuring that they are unburdened of ancillary tasks and equipped with necessary tools and materials to develop lifelong Filipino learners,” Briones stressed.

In September last year, DepEd committed to improve the working condition of teachers through a review of its policies on teachers’ workload.  The initial solution of requesting to the Department of Budget and Management the creation of non-teaching positions in schools was based on the study conducted by DepEd about the type and amount of ancillary tasks being undertaken by teachers.

Meanwhile, the hiring of more teachers seeks to further improve teacher-to-student ratio. In 2016, DepEd lowered the teacher-to-student ratio to 1:35 for elementary and 1:43 for secondary schools to enable teachers to better respond to the varying learning needs of their students.  With enrollment in public schools increasing every year, achieving the optimum teacher to student ratio will ensure quality teaching and learning in class.

Source: DepEd