With biggest slice of 2020 budget pie, DepEd hiring 10,000 new teachers

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) plans to hire 10,000 public school teachers and 5,000 non-teaching personnel under its 2020 proposed budget.

“Some of the good news, 10,000 new positions for our teachers. Next, 5,000 non-teaching positions,” said Education Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla at a press conference ob Monday (Sept 2).

“This will go to the field, the division offices and the schools,” Sevilla said.

“This is just initial,” she said. “We hope that in the succeeding years, if we will get additional teachers, we hope to get more non-teaching positions,” Sevilla said in a mix of Filipino and English.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones said this would further improve the teacher-to-student ratio and the quality of education teachers can give their students.

“More than being part of our 10-point agenda, we want to stay true to our word that the department is relentless in finding ways to enhance personnel welfare, while at the same time improving delivery of quality education,” Briones said.

In 2016, DepEd lowered the teacher-to-student ratio to 1:35 for elementary and 1:43 for secondary schools which means fewer students per teacher that would allow teachers to deliver better quality education.

DepEd also said it will allocate P1.28 billion for the new 5,000 non-teaching positions and P1.27 billion for the recruitment of 10,000 more teachers next year.

In the 2020 National Expenditure Program (NEP) recently submitted by the Department of Budget and Management (DMB) to the House of Representatives, the education sector received the biggest chunk of the funding with a proposed P673 billion budget.

READ: DBM submits P4.1-T 2020 budget plan to House, bares spending priorities https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1155380/dbm-submits-p4-1-t-2020-budget-plan-to-house-bares-spending-priorities#ixzz5yLd4QF1X

Out of the P673 billion proposed fund for the education sector, DepEd is allocated with P550.89 billion, 3.90 percent higher than its P530.23 billion budget under the 2019 General Appropriations Act or budget law./TSB