DepEd to hire more than 10,000 teachers this year

The Department of Education (DepEd) is planning to hire more than 10,000 teachers this year to serve
almost 2.5 million preschool children in the country.

“This new year, we are renewing our commitment to reach all children of school age as part of our
intensified efforts towards achieving the Education For All (EFA) commitment,” Education Secretary
Armin Luistro said.

Luistro said that with the increase in DepEd’s budget this year, the department will implement the
universal public kindergarten program for five-year-olds.

In line with this, the department is set to undertake a ground mapping of all school-aged children by
way of pre-registration all over the country starting January 15.

“The pre-registration will not only allow us to determine the interventions needed to ensure that the
EFA commitment is within the department’s reach, but it will also enable us to have a wider reach of
children who are deprived of basic education,” Luistro said.

From the 1,914,137 who were reached in 2010 in both public and private schools, DepEd targets to
raise the number of preschool children it will serve to almost 2.5 million or a 21 percent increase in
2011.

Currently, there are 29,615 preschool teachers. Of these, only 2,299 hold permanent items and the rest
are on contract of service status.

This year, DepEd targets to open more than 700 permanent teaching positions and accommodate more
than 10,000 contractual teachers.