BAGUIO CITY, June 22 (PNA) — The Department of Education (DepEd) will need around 33,000 school teachers by the time the K to 12 program is fully implemented in preparation for the ASEAN Integration
DepEd-Cordillera Assistant Regional Director Estela Cariño on June 22 said the department was not directly affected by the new educational program but rather it would be enhanced.
Cariño added that about 30,000 teachers of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) will be affected instead.
Cariño assured, however, that the teachers who will be affected may be absorbed by the department if they will apply for the position and provided they are qualified to the positions they are applying for.
In the regular “Kapihan sa Benguet,” where the Science and Technology Academic and Research-Based Openly Operated Kiosk (STARBOOKS) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) was launched, Cariño, reported decreases in enrollment in elementary and high school.
Cariño said there was a six percent drop of enrollees in the elementary, or from 245,190 in the 2014-2015 school calendar to 231,148 in the 2015- 2016 schoolyear.
In high school, there was a one percent drop of enrollees, or from 92,678 students to 91,366.
Cariño did not say what the real reason of the decrease was.
The figures, Cariño added, were not final yet as there were still some schools in the region which have not submitted their reports.
Cariño said teaching personnel is not a problem, “We (the department) have enough teachers.
In fact, we have newly hired 711 teachers to be designated in the different school divisions in the region”, Cariño said.
Some of the new teachers will be assigned in Benguet, which has a high student population and others will be assigned in day care centers for kindergarten pupils. (PNA)