‘Give half of 16K new teachers to Mindanao’
A senior House lawmaker proposed on Monday that half of the 16,000 new teaching positions to be created for the coming school year be allocated to Mindanao to allow the region to catch up to Luzon and Visayas in terms of literacy rates.
Reelected Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez called on the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to consider his proposal, which will benefit Mindanao, where eight of the country’s 10 provinces with the highest basic illiteracy rates are located.
“I am urging DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman and Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara to give Mindanao at least 8,000 new teaching positions,” Rodriguez said, adding: “This will allow our island to catch up with Visayas and Luzon in terms of literacy.”
He pointed out that Mindanao needs more teachers, additional training for teaching personnel, and more school infrastructure and equipment to address the problem of “functional illiteracy,” which was highest in the southern Philippines, according to a recent Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report.
“Our learners in the public school system in our part of the country have to catch up with their counterparts in Luzon and Visayas. Our education officials will not be able to solve this problem unless our island is allocated more teachers, infrastructure and equipment,” Rodriguez said.
PSA report
The recent PSA report showed that 18.9 million Filipinos who completed secondary education between 2019 and 2024 may be considered “functional illiterate” or those who can read, write and compute but are unable to comprehend what they read.
The eight provinces in Mindanao, which were among the country’s 10 provinces with the “highest basic illiteracy” rate are Tawi-Tawi with 36 percent; Davao Occidental and Basilan, 23 percent; Sarangani, 18 percent; Lanao del Sur, 17 percent; Zamboanga del Sur, 16 percent; Sultan Kudarat, 14 percent; and Maguindanao, 13 percent.
The two other provinces are Northern Samar with 20 percent and Samar with 16 percent.
For Malacañang, the creation of 16,000 new teaching positions is part of the administration’s thrust to improve the education system.
President’s directive
Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary and Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said on Monday that the move is in line with the directive of President Marcos to reduce the shortage of teachers and improve learning conditions.
“The President truly wants to reduce the shortage of teachers in every school. This 16,000 is just the first part, as the target is 20,000 teaching positions,” Castro said in a press briefing.
She emphasized that the initiative aims to ensure each student receives proper attention from their teachers to improve learning outcomes.
The new positions, which have been approved by the DBM for Academic Year 2025–2026 include 15,343 Teacher I posts (Salary Grade 11); 157 Special Science Teachers (Salary Grade 13); and 500 Special Education teachers (Salary Grade 14).
The P4.194 billion needed to fund the new positions will come from the DepEd’s built-in appropriations under the 2025 General Appropriations Act, specifically earmarked for hiring new school personnel, according to the DBM. —WITH A REPORT FROM PNA
