DepEd needs 39K teachers for K-12, solons tell FUSE

More than 39,000 teachers will be hired by the Department of Education
(DepEd) and an additional 31,000 classrooms will be constructed this
year to support the implementation of the K to 12 program, which takes
effect in 2016.

Representatives Roman Romulo (Pasig, Lone District) and Evelina
Escudero (Sorsogon, 1st District) told the recent monthly general
assembly of the Foundation for Upgrading the Standard of Education
(FUSE) that the education sector is undergoing a transition that would
require an even bigger budget in the coming years, including a
stabilization fund for college-level faculty and non-teaching
personnel who would be dislocated by the program.

The Aquino administration has earmarked P29B to address the impact of K-12.

“Congress is working to enact remedial measures to help mitigate the
effects of K-12,” assured Romulo, chairman of the Committee on Higher
and Technical Education.

For her part, Escudero, widow of former legislator and FUSE president
Salvador Escudero III, said they “are already looking at some ways to
respond to this anticipated need,” regarding the K-12’s, which adds
two more years in high school, requirements.

She also thanked the founders of FUSE, including businessman Lucio
Tan, the group’s vice-chairman, for giving her late husband “the
chance to further serve the cause of good education.”

Romulo said his committee is studying options to boost the Aquino
administration’s lateral-hiring plan wherein college-faculty and
non-teaching personnel would be reassigned to senior high school
duties. Under the House scheme, the affected employees in the tertiary
level would not suffer any pay cuts as the bill seeks an increase in
the P18,000 entry-level monthly salary for public high school
teachers.

The current salary is significantly lower than the corresponding rate
for college faculty members and non-teaching personnel of P28,000 to
P30,000, respectively.

The education budget, P364.9B for 2015, has increased over the years,
from 9.8 percent in 2012 to 17.1 percent in 2013 and 17.8 percent by
2015, according to Escudero.

Taking into consideration the entire education sector, she pointed
out, the budget allocation is even much bigger as there are increments
to allocations for state universities and colleges (SUCs) and the
Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF). Thus the entire budget
for education for this year is about P424B.

DepEd gets the lion’s share of the government’s annual budget.