Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 1) — Senate Committee on Basic Education chairman Sherwin Gatchalian on Friday said the Department of Education (DepEd) should streamline its process of hiring to immediately fill around 15,000 vacancies among teaching positions.
Speaking to CNN Philippines’ The Source, Gatchalian said the hiring of public teachers goes through a long process as it still has to pass through DepEd’s regional and central units, then to agencies not under it like the Civil Service Commission. This entire hiring process takes around 7 months, the senator noted.
“So our simple suggestion is why don’t you talk to the other agencies and shorten it because we need the teachers tomorrow,” Gatchalian said. “In terms of budget, the money is allocated, but we’re not hiring fast enough… therefore we’re not fulfilling all the required teachers in our schools.”
The senator said there are efforts from DepEd to improve the process, but lawmakers will still look into it through the budget deliberations for the department next week.
Gatchalian is also pushing to increase the salary of teachers to at least make it competitive in the ASEAN region.
He noted that the entry-level salary of public school teachers in the country ranges from ₱27,000 to ₱28,000, one of the lowest in the region and far from Vietnam’s ₱35,000 to ₱45,000.
The lawmaker hopes to increase the range to ₱32,000 to ₱35,000, but it is also important to make sure that private institutions are able to catch up.
