COTABATO CITY, Philippines—At least 6,000 permanent teachers assigned to various areas of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao have been ordered to submit additional proof that they indeed were licensure board exam passers.
Secretary Jamar Kulayan of the ARMM’s Department of Education said they discovered that the certi9ficates submitted by these teachers to show that they had passed the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) were not reflected in the database of the Professional Regulation Commission.
ARMM has about 25,000 teachers.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
“They have questionable certificates,” Kulayan said Thursday.
Kulayan said the teachers being questioned have been teaching in elementary and high schools in the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Basilan — the five provinces that make up the ARMM.
He said the ARMM education department has sent them orders to submit additional proof that they were LET passers.
“The show cause order will require teachers to submit to us evidence they are indeed LET passers,” Kulayan said.
He said the dubious certificates were discovered when regional authorities submitted the teachers’ certificates for verification with the PRC.
“When we validated their certification with PRC, these could not be found in the records,” Kulayan said.
He said the DepEd has given the teachers one month to comply with the show cause order starting Thursday or have their appointments degraded from permanent to temporary.
Kulayan did not say if any other action would be taken against the 6,000 teachers. Under the law, the submission of spurious documents to back employment is a criminal offense.
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