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NORDIS
WEEKLY June 19, 2005 |
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Teacher shortage faces DepEd-Ilocos |
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| SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union (June 15) — The Department of Education in the Ilocos region was authorized to hire only 96 teachers this school year, a far cry from the 1,823 teacher shortage. Bettina Daytec-Aquino, regional finance and management unit chief said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has allowed the regional DepEd to hire 16 teaching positions in elementary level and 80 for high school. There are about 8,382 high school teachers serving 406 high schools in the region and around 20,868 elementary teachers for 2,335 elementary schools in the region. The DBM has disbursed P6.6 billion for the region this year to pay for teachers’ salaries and wage benefits. Two hundred four million pesos was allocated for the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE). Budget was not made available for capital outlay projects, Aquino said. “We received Memorandum Order No.16 informing us that subjects in English, Math and Science teaching slots must be prioritized,” Aquino said. DepEd noted that most highschool and elementary students flunked in those subjects in the National Achievement Test (NAT) this year. At the regional planning unit, records show at least 7 high schools are in the “red zone” or those schools whose classroom-student ratio is 1:60 and had barely received funds for additional classrooms. At least three are in the “black zone”, or those which have not received any funding for more classrooms. Eduardo Peralta, physical facilities unit coordinator said more than P15 million is being allocated by the DBM for additional 345 classrooms, way below the 1,631 needed by the region. Schools suffering from deficient facilities cope up by seeking community assistance, a regional official said. “They could tap alumni balikbayan of the school to help in financing modern facilities, some have tie-ups with the local government to pay for salaries of new teachers,” the official added. The DepEd has also implemented the educational service-contracting scheme where students enroll in private schools and their tuition is paid for by the government, the official said. # Jhong dela Cruz for NORDIS |
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