Angara wants swift hiring of 16K new teachers in time for school opening
The Department of Education (DepEd) said Tuesday that Secretary Sonny Angara has ordered all their regional and division offices to recruit 16,000 new teachers 'swiftly and efficiently' in preparation for the opening of School Year 2025-2026.
According to DepEd, the initial 16,000 teaching positions created upon the approval of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) would help decongest overcrowded classrooms and ease the workload of public school teachers across the country.
It will also address the need for educators with appropriate specializations, particularly in kindergarten, elementary, and subject-specific areas in junior and senior high school.
Angara said the timely deployment of the new teachers 'is crucial to ensuring a smooth and effective school opening.'
School Year 2025-2026 is set to open on June 16, 2025 and end on March 31, 2026.
The DBM said that the 16,000 new items would be the first tranche of the 20,000 positions targeted for creation this year.
With this, DepEd said that its schools division offices were ordered to immediately begin the publication, hiring, and appointment process upon receipt of the Notices of Organization, Staffing and Compensation Action (NOSCA) from the DBM regional offices to ensure that all new positions are filled by the end of the third quarter.
The agency said that the DBM has started the issuance of NOSCAs for 10,000 administrative officer II (AOII) items.
'Recruitment and assessment of applicants in the SDOs have been ongoing since January this year, and divisions with large applicant pools were even authorized to begin calls as early as October 2024,' the DepEd noted.
The agency said that it will also continue monitoring the compliance and the pace of hiring across the regions to make sure that appointments will not get delayed.
The Education Department advised teacher-applicants for School Year 2025-2026 to coordinate directly with their local schools division offices for guidelines and updates on the filling of the positions. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News
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