By Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Reporter
MORE than 11,000 teachers have been hired this year to help boost basic education and recover learning losses, Malacañang said on Sunday.
Citing a Department of Education (DepEd) report, the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) said the government has hired 11,580 teachers and created 5,000 administrative officer items “to unburden teachers from administrative loads.”
The hiring of teachers is also part of an effort to address learning losses following the closure of schools and a shift to digital and other alternative modes of instruction starting March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
DepEd data also showed 15,331 teachers and school leaders received graduate scholarships this year while 17,636 were trained in early-grade language literacy, the OPS said.
A total of 161,700 teachers also completed the National Educators’ Academy of the Philippines’ (NEAP) subsidized teaching courses and 31,700 teachers underwent Teacher Induction Program, it added.
NEAP, a DepEd agency, is responsible for the professional development of teachers, school leaders, and other teaching-related personnel.
The Palace said DepEd had prepared a national learning recovery plan to guide the agency’s offices at the local levels in addressing learning deficiencies due to pandemic-related disruptions.
“DepEd data indicated that the proposed policy is anchored on learning remediation and intervention, professional development, health, safety and mental wellness,” the Palace said.
The plan includes extending the school calendar, establishing a learning support center in schools and community-based learning spaces, conducting summer learning remediation and intervention programs, and hiring additional learning support aides, the OPS said.
LONGEST LOCKDOWN
Millions of Filipino students returned to schools for the first time in two years in August after the Philippines enforced one of the world’s strictest lockdowns. The Southeast Asian nation was the last country in the world to open its schools, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said in a report.
“In fact, from March to October 2020, formal classes of any type were not held in the country,” the CHR said, “Millions of Filipino students at all levels of education were required to remain at home and adhere to the government’s quarantine measures.”
DepEd reported over 28 million registered students in basic education schools as of Aug. 19 for school year 2022-2023, up from the previous school year at more than 27.11 million. About 85% of the total are in public schools.
“Prolonged school closures, poor health risk mitigation, and household-income shocks had the biggest impact on learning poverty,” the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said in a statement on the full reopening of schools in the Philippines on Aug. 22.
“Vulnerable children such as children with disabilities, children living in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, and children living in disaster and conflict zones fare far worse,” UNICEF said.
UNICEF Philippines Representative Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov said, “As we welcome children back into the classrooms today, let’s remember that this is the first of many steps in our learning recovery journey.”
In September, Mr. Marcos cited the importance of supporting teachers and not “scrimping on the amount” for children’s education.
“Our children must be equipped with the best that we can possibly provide. We cannot scrimp on the amount. We should give everything we can so that they get the best quality of education that we can afford without being wasteful,” he said in a meeting with the Filipino community in New York in September.
Mr. Marcos, 65, has also been saying that the Philippines must do better in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses.
AGHAM, a group of Filipino scientists, has said government support for the STEM program remains low, calling for a long-term plan to boost the scientific community.