Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The Department of Education (DepEd) said in a conference Tuesday that it is prepared for the first batch of Grade 12 students under the K to 12 curriculum, despite an insufficient number of teachers.
DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones said they will continue hiring teachers this coming summer to prepare for the one million Grade 12 students expected to come in June. She said, aside from the lack of faculty members, many teachers will also be retiring.
“We need more teachers, especially in the sciences as well as in English so we are continuing the recruitment process,” Briones said.
Data from the government show the current teacher-student ratio at 1:37. A study by the Center for Public Education said the ideal ratio should be one teacher for around 15 to 18 students.
In December 2016, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill 416, that will allow home economics graduates to teach senior high school.
Sponsored by Committee on Basic Education and Culture and Sorsogon representative Evelina Escudero, House Bill 416 aims to address the need for additional personnel to teach technical-vocational subjects.
“If enacted into law, this bill will allow Home Economics graduates the opportunity to teach without the need for a Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) certification,” Escudero said.
Section 8 of the Republic Act 10533 or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 requires graduates of technical-vocational courses to acquire TESDA certification before they can teach specialized subjects.
For Alliance of Concerned Teachers Partylist Representative Antonio Tinio, the thousands of recently laid off contractual teachers could be rehired to teach in Grade 12.
Tinio said these are the educators in first and second year college who lost their jobs during the first two transition years of the K-12 program since its full implementation in 2015.
Fourth year high school students who were supposed to be graduating then still have to undergo two years of Senior High School, that left almost no enrollment in first and second year college levels.
“Ang isang hindi nabibilang ng statistics ng CHED at DOLE ay marami sa mga tinanggal o nilayoff na mga teachers are contractual teachers,” Tinio said in a phone interview with CNN Philippines.
[Translation: Most of those who are laid-off are contractual teachers. These are not reflected in CHED and DOLE statistics.]
Education officials, however, are still optimistic they would be able to address the gap due to higher pay for teachers in public schools.
The monthly salary in the public sector is at P23,000, which is a lot more compared to the private sector’s average of around P8,000.
Briones said there are even cases where the amount is even much lower.
“I have come across schools, private schools which give P6,000 compare that with a total of P23,000 for public school teachers, starting level,” Briones narrated.
Unfinished, damaged school buildings
Aside from the need for more teachers, Briones admitted they are also facing the challenge of finishing school buildings for Senior High School.
She said a significant number of senior high school facilities are still under construction after these were started two years ago.
The recent typhoons also did not help, as many schools in the eastern coast of Luzon were damaged by strong winds and rains.
The buildings and roofs of these schools need to be repaired, as well as having school furniture replaced.
In some schools near coastal areas, all learning materials and computers were destroyed.
“We have a lot of catching up to do with one repairs and clean up and we hope to do that in three months time,” Briones said.
