DepEd-ARMM hires 300 licensed teachers

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The education department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) enlisted 300 more licensed teachers in a bid to address the nagging illiteracy problem besetting ARMM.

John Magno, regional secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd) in the autonomous region, on Thursday said ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman signed the appointments of the new teachers early this week.

“These new teachers are all duly licensed and have pledged not to choose areas of assignment. They committed to work in far-flung areas,” Magno said.

Magno said the new teachers have all passed DepEd-ARMM’s rigid written and practical teaching proficiency admission tests.

The admission process was designed by Magno, an industrial psychologist, with the help of planners from different ARMM agencies, including professors with doctorate degrees and foreign education studies.

Magno said Hataman had rejected applicants for the 300 teaching positions who did not have licenses but still applied, apparently banking on recommendations of powerful politicians in the ARMM’s scattered Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces.

The DepEd-ARMM hired some 2,000 teachers last year, appointed to teaching positions based on staffing patterns approved by the Department of Budget and Management and the Civil Service Commission.

Magno said the 300 newly-hired teachers will be deployed in Maguindanao, Basilan and Sulu.

“More will be hired soon for other ARMM provinces,” Magno said.

Last year's massive hiring of mentors was initiated after the Hataman administration delisted thousands of ghost teachers from old DepEd-ARMM payrolls, an anomaly that proliferated during the time of past regional governors.

The DepEd-ARMM was touted as the most corrupt agency in the autonomous region before Hataman became an appointed regional governor in December 2011. He was elected ARMM governor, the eight since the region's creation in 1990, during the May 13, 2013 regional polls.