DepEd studying employment for displaced private school teachers

The Department of Education (DepEd) said Tuesday it could hire displaced private school teachers to work as tutors for blended learning.

Licensed private school teachers can be hired by DepEd while non-licensed teachers can serve as para-teachers as the Philippine education system transitions to distance learning.

“Kung licensed teacher sila, puwede naman namin siguro sila i-hire at ang mga non-licensed, puwede naming i-hire as para-teachers for blended learning,” Education Undersecretary Revsee Escobedo said.

(If they are licensed, we can hire them. For the non-licensed, we can hire them as para-teachers for blended learning.)

The move comes as DepEd acknowledged that not all parents are capable of schooling their children at home.

Several teachers’ groups have earlier called on DepEd to provide aid for private school teachers whose livelihoods are at risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

DepEd had said that it is studying how to provide assistance to private school teachers given that hundreds of private schools in the country will halt operations for the upcoming school year due to low enrollment turnout as the coronavirus pandemic upended the livelihood of many Filipinos.

Latest enrollment data from the DepEd show that around 1.7 million learners have registered in private schools so far, only 41.7 percent of the total number of private school students last school year.

Nearly 400,000 private school students have also transferred to public schools, the DepEd had said.