In order to decrease class sizes and ensure student safety when schools resume in September, THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers requested the Department of Education to hire more teachers.
According to Vladimer Quetua, the group’s chairperson, “As of February 2021, there were more than 26,000 unfilled teaching items in the Department of Education while there is a provision in the 2022 General Appropriations Act for 10,000 new teaching items.”
Additionally, Quetua said, “The snail-paced sluggishness of the DepEd to hire teachers has become a perennial problem. From 2016 to 2020, there were yearly additional 1,500 to 2,500 net unfilled items under the DepEd, vis-a-vis the newly created items per year. That is why they have a bloated backlog in hiring teachers.”
He continued by saying that correcting the learning gaps brought on by the two-year school closure and maintaining safety during in-person instruction require smaller class numbers.
Urban areas, where class sizes can reach up to 60 to 70 students, are where the teacher shortage is most severe, claims ACT.
As per Quetua, “Again we are calling on the DepEd to fast-track the hiring of teachers before school opening to somehow relieve our educational system of overcrowded classrooms. Budget has already been allotted for this so it is not an additional expense.”
