MANILA, Philippines — To reach the ideal class size of 35 students per classroom, the Department of Education (DepEd) should hire 30,000 teachers annually until 2028, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said in a statement on Wednesday.
The day before, Vice President Sara Duterte said the DepEd, which she also heads, had vowed to reduce the shortage of teachers by continuing to hire more of them annually.
In Wednesday’s statement, Vladimer Quetua, the ACT chair, said: “At present, we are short of 147,000 teachers to decisively reduce the class size to 35 students and ensure that our teachers can effectively teach and monitor the progress of each of our learners.
“Approximately, we need to hire 25,000 new teachers yearly until 2028 to eradicate the shortage, and an additional 5,000 new teachers to cover the yearly increase in enrolment, which totals to a requirement of 30,000 new teachers yearly.”
To do that, DepEd would need P14 billion, Quetua said, citing data from the Department of Budget and Management that showing that each entry-level teacher would cost P465,760 yearly.
“We are sure the people’s taxes can support this if only the government would give due premium to education,” he said.