MANILA — Over 20,000 positions for public school teachers in basic education were unfilled as of May 24, according to ACT Teachers Party List Representative France Castro. 

These are for teacher 1, teacher 2 and teacher 3 positions, Castro said.

The vacancies are on top of the unfilled higher positions, which are at over 2,000, according to Castro, and the over 9,000 vacancies for non-teaching personnel.

“Nagrerequest ang DepEd taun-taon ng 10,000 na Teacher 1, Salary Grade 11. Pero as of May 24, 2024, more than 20,000 ang unfilled positions for teacher 1 to 3 alone. Iba pa ‘yung sa mga master teacher… Bakit hanggang ngayon ay hindi pa nafi-fill-up-an. Parang nag-accumulate na ‘yung items,” she asked during the oversight meeting of the House Committee on Appropriations regarding the budgetary performance of the Department of Education for the first half of 2024.

“Sa National Capital Region, talagang alam naman natin very congested ang ating mga klase at nangangailangan ng additional teachers. So 4,732 ‘yung unfilled positions. Sa Western Visayas, 2,866. Central Visayas, 2,692. Nabanggit ko ito, kasi ito ‘yung mga congested na regions natin, including Davao, 2,320… Kung hindi umuusad itong mababang positions, paano natin maaattain na mapromote ang teachers,” Castro added.

Education Undersecretary Wilfredo Cabral said 9 percent of the mentioned vacancies for teachers 1 to 3 have already been filled up, and around 22 percent are in different stages of appointment. 

The DepEd’s regional offices have been instructed to come up with a catch-up plan.

The DepEd is monitoring the progress in filling up the remaining vacancies, and targets to complete this not later than next month.

 “To date, for the 2024, we have a total of about 30% already filled up, which is an indication that the advice has already been moving and regions have been taking steps to fill it up,” Cabral said.

“We have been continuously monitoring this to ensure that by August, specifically stated in our memorandum that all of these items, whether newly created or previously unfilled should be filled up not later than August. To ensure that the budget allocated for all of these items should be utilized within the end of the fiscal year,” he added.

Filling up the vacancies for school heads, meanwhile, is dependent on the whether the teacher in charge has certification of readiness to be appointed, according to Cabral.

The DepEd also sees a challenge in filling some vacant positions for non-teaching personnel, like accountants, noting that they usually do not stay long, and leave “for greener pasture”.

 “We consider these items as hard to fill, because once they get the position, after a certain period of time, they leave and look for greener pastures. With respect to administrative assistant 2 and other positions lower than AO 2, some of these positions are vacated because of the promotion,” Cabral explained.

He said the DepEd has conducted an extensive analysis of the vacant positions and have included them in the catch-up plan.

CATCH-UP FRIDAYS

Regarding Catch-up Fridays, DepEd said it is eyeing to “refine” program, amid calls to halt it due to “inefficacy”.

DepEd Memorandum No. 001 series of 2024 states that all Fridays throughout the school year shall be designated as Catch-up Fridays, with a focus on operationalizing the National Reading Program during the first half of the day, while the second half will focus on fostering values, health and peace education. 

The program seeks to improve literacy in public schools.