PH to OFW teachers: Come home

HONG KONG – Come home and teach.

This is the message that the Philippines’ Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) want to send out to the thousands of Filipino teachers who have gone abroad to work. 

Under the “Sa Pinas, Ikaw ang Ma’am, Sir(In the Philippines, you are Ma’am, Sir)” project, 300 permanent items were offered late last year to OFW teachers in their respective hometowns. 

But by the time schools opened last month, only 10 OFW teachers, all from Hong Kong, were able to assume teaching posts in 7 regions across the Philippines. 

An additional 68 items or posts were granted subsequently throughout the country, but not all have reportedly been taken. 

In a recent interview with The SUN, Jalilo de la Torre of DOLE’s National Center for Reintegration of OFWs explained that preference was initially given to returning teachers from Hong Kong. 

De la Torre also said that the 300 offered slots were just a fraction of the more than 30,000 teacher items offered by the DepEd last year alone. 

This was confirmed by Assistant Secretary Jesus Mateo, DepEd’s point person for the project. 

Mateo said that since 2013, more than 100,000 new teacher positions have been offered to catch up with the backlog in demand. 

The response has been quick, with about 95% of the 61,000 jobs offered in the first year being snapped up. 

But OFW teachers appear to have been less enthusiastic about going home and taking up the offered jobs, despite the relatively substantial starting pay of P18,500 a month plus allowances. 

“This year we tried to reserve 300 slots (for OFWs) but nung tingnan namin ang figures from DOLE, mukhang mahihirapan kaming ma-fill up ‘yung slots (it looks like we’d have a hard time filling the slots),” said Mateo. 

He said the reserved slots will be given to other qualified teachers if they are not filled by the end of the year. 

“We have to get only those who are interested and willing to come back,” Mateo said. 

But interest and willingness to teach are just some of the factors that may affect an OFW teacher’s decision to return home.

There is also the concern that they would not be paid for months, as what happened to some 500 teachers who took up the offer of then education secretary Raul Roco to return home in 2002.

Mateo was however, quick to brush this aside, saying new teachers will have to wait for only a month to get paid. He said that salary payment has been speeded up since 2010, when teachers were allowed to draw their pay directly from ATM machines. 

Josefina Manjares, president of the National Organization of Professional Teachers – Hong Kong (NOPT), said another worry is the additional requirements for teacher-applicants. 

Under the new rules, returning teachers are required to take a refresher course if they have no prior teaching experience, or if they taught before but have been away for more than 5 years. 

In the previous “Balik Turo” offer, all that was required of the applicants was to pass the licensure examination for teachers. 

Manjares said the new requirement has made many OFW teachers apprehensive. But Mateo said this was in line with DepEd’s new policy of hiring only “quality teachers.”

“We keep reminding DOLE that they should not raise expectations because we want to get quality teachers,” he said. 

He said that in the Philippines, passing the LET is just the minimum requirement for filling up a post. With the current ranking system, teacher applicants are assessed based on several factors, such as their education or academic achievement, teaching experience, special training or skills, interview, demonstration teaching and communication skills. Their LET grade makes up only 15% of their overall score. 

This is said to be in line with the Magna Carta for Education which requires civil servants to be hired based on merit and fitness. 

But as a concession, the ranking test is not applied to OFW teachers for now, although Mateo said the DepEd  will have to eventually submit to this more rigorous evaluation. The refresher course requirement was put in its place.

Still, all hope is not lost for OFW teachers who want to acquire “quality teacher” status. A free online refresher course has been set up for them, courtesy of the Philippine Normal University. 

For details, check out the NCRO Facebook account or email nrcoreintegration@gmail.com. 

Those who are interested in applying for the remaining slots under the “Sa Pinas Ikaw ang Sir, Ma’am” project can accomplish the application form online here. – Rappler.com 

This story was republished with permission from The Sun-HK, a content partner of Rappler.