ARMM hires 1,358 new teachers; increased enrollment seen

ARMM Education Secretary Jamar Kulayan said the new teachers were hired on a permanent basis and would be deployed in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.

Kulayan said Maguindanao got 505 of the 1,358 teachers who were newly hired.

Eighty-nine percent of the new teachers are women, according to Kulayan.

“Women are still considered the more patient and effective educator as most children revere mothers as their first teachers,” he said.

Mubarak Pandi, ARMM Education information chief, said more teachers were hired as the number of pupils was expected to increase in the coming school year. He did not say what the expected percentage of increase was, or how many pupils were enrolled in 2013.

Pandi said 2,645 teaching slots were still waiting to be filled up in time for the start of the classes in June.

“We are optimistic these vacancies will soon be filled up with the massive turn-out of new teaching aspirants undergoing Teachers Assessment and Competency Exam,” he said.

In Zamboanga City, education officials were having headaches as to where classes in some schools would be held as classrooms were either still packed with people, who had fled the September violence, or were still un-repaired.

This prompted officials to designate other schools as temporary host for those coming from other areas of the city.

For example, the Zamboanga East Central School (ZECS) will host some 2,000 pupils from Sta. Barbara Elementary School (SBES).

Twenty-six classrooms at the ZECS had been designated for use of pupils from Sta. Barbara.

“Out of the 26 classrooms however, only eight can be used because the rest were either dilapidated or occupied by internally displaced individuals from last year’s September siege,” SBES principal Ma. Daisy Ebrada said, referring to the attack by Moro National Liberation Front men.