The Department of Education (DepEd) intends to fill up 797 teaching positions to augment the current number of teachers in public schools province-wide.
Desiderio Deligero, chief of the DepEd’s School Governance and Operations Division, said that they are in need of 398 teachers for kindergarten and 399 for elementary.
However, he clarified that there is no shortage of teachers in the province, as the acceptance of new applicants is intended to improve pupil-teacher ratio.
“Wa pa na kasugod og tudlo [ang mga aplikante], unya dili kulang ang teachers,” Deligero said.
Those who will be hired will immediately be assigned to various public schools across the province once processing of their documents will be completed.
According to Deligero, there are 13,825 public school personnel in the province, 12,559 are teachers, 562 are non-teaching personnel and 704 are school administrators.
Meanwhile, enrollment for school year 2018-2019 is projected to grow by two percent or an addition of over 6,000 more enrollees compared to last school year’s 334,310 enrollees.
Deligero said that the ideal teacher-pupil ratio set by DepEd is 1:30 or one teacher for 30 pupils for kindergarten, 1:40 for elementary and 1:50 for high school.
The DepEd official also admitted that some students have been taking classes on school ground stages and other temporary facilities as construction of several classrooms in the province continued.
Schools like the Erico B. Aumentado High School in Barangay Poblacion, Ubay lack classrooms due to the addition of Grade 8 in the school levels, said Deligero.
“Nagkuwang sila og room kay daghan kaayong bata mao na nga nangita pa tag pamaagi, naay makeshift sila nag-gama sila trapal nga dagko, nangita pud silag mga pamaagi,” he added.
For his part, Melchor Daniel, Jr., assistant principal of the Dr. Cecilio Putong National High School in Tagbilaran City, said that their main problem during the opening of classes on Monday was their cramped classrooms.
Daniel however assured that the school has enough teachers.
“We have sufficient teachers, but not enough classrooms,” he said. (Rey Tutas)