TO help graduating students decide on what courses they may take or shift, a lawmaker on Sunday said the government will hire an additional 234,542 teachers and allied health professionals starting this year and in the next few years.
United Nationalist Alliance Rep. Luis N. Campos Jr. of Makati City, a deputy minority leader, said these additional teacher and health professional will help the government to build up public schools and improve the delivery of medical services.
Campos said the Department of Education (DepEd) will hire a total of 181,980 teachers starting this year until 2020.
Also, the lawmaker said the Department of Health (DOH) is also looking to recruit a total of 52,562 health practitioners beginning this year until 2022.
Of these health professionals, 39,466 are nurses; 3,288, pharmacists; 2,862, medical technologists; 2,497, universal health-care implementers; 2,424, physicians; 1,114 dentists; and 911 public health associates.
“We are releasing these figures to help graduating high-school students, as well as first- and second-year college students decide on what courses they may take or shift to, if they are considering future employability in the public sector as a factor,” Campos said.
“The fastest-growing profession in the years ahead will be teaching, as the DepEd steps up hiring to cope with the demands of a rapidly expanding public-school system. The need for math and science teachers, in particular, will be exceptionally strong,” he added.
According to Campos, the DepEd is spending P15.5 billion to fill up 53,831 new teaching positions in 2017.
The lawmaker said classroom teachers in public schools receive a monthly salary ranging from P19,077 for entry-level Teacher I (Salary Grade 11, Step 1) to P39,768 for Master Teacher III (Salary Grade 20, Step 1).
He said these pay rates will increase every year until they reach P20,754 for Teacher 1 and P51,155 for Master Teacher III starting January 1, 2019, under Executive Order 201 of 2016.
There are 109 bills currently pending in the lower chamber seeking to support and to increase the basic salary of public-school teachers.
Party-list Rep. France Castro of ACT Teachers said teachers are in “dire need” of a salary increase to help them focus on providing quality education.
Also, there are several bills helping and protecting health professional in the country.
Liberal Party Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat Jr. of Ifugao, author of a bill upgrading the minimum salary grade of government doctors from Salary Grade 16 to 24, said an estimated 22,000 health professionals leave the Philippines annually to work abroad.
He said the country is the world’s largest exporter of nurses and the second-largest exporters of doctors. But, Baguilat noted that of the 70 percent of Filipinos living in rural areas, only 10 percent benefit from the services of medical professionals.
To address this, Baguilat said the minimum salary of government doctors should increase to encourage health professionals to work in public hospitals instead of seeking employment overseas.
“This measure also aims to address the ‘brain drain’ phenomenon that has been a perennial problem in the recent decades,” he said.