Sara: DepEd to coordinate with Congress on ‘no permit, no exam’ rule

The Department of Education (DepEd) will cooperate with any Congress proceedings in relation to the prohibition of the “no permit, no exam” policy in all public and private educational institutions, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte said Tuesday.

“Let us wait for the discussions doon sa Congress with regards doon sa mga batas,” Duterte said in an ambush interview when asked to comment on the third and final reading approval of Senate Bill 1359 which prohibits schools from barring students yet to pay their tuition and other fees from taking exams.

“The Department of Education fully commits to participate sa lahat ng mga patawag at mga hearings na ginagawa ng Congress,” she added.

Teachers

Meanwhile, Duterte said that DepEd plans to hire more new teachers annually in a bid to address the problem on the lack of teaching personnel.

“The plan is...meron talagang i-hire every year, as well as the other track we are pursuing, kasi hindi naman natin ma-hire lahat ng pangangailangan natin, is to amplify the best teachers that we have [using technology],” she said.

(We will really hire teachers every year. We are also looking at our other track to amplify the best teachers that we have using technology, as we could not hire all that we need.)

DepEd spokesperson Atty. Michael Poa earlier admitted that among the challenges they faced in the current academic year was the lack of teachers, on top of shortage of school infrastructure and furniture.

Thus for School Year 2023-2024, he said DepEd is planning to hire around 10,000 more teachers.

In 2022, DepEd was able to employ a total of 11,580 teachers.

Duterte also said that DepEd is willing to collaborate with other local government units (LGU) to offer housing projects to teachers. She said DepEd’s role for this initiative is to provide the list of qualified teacher beneficiaries to the LGUs.

The Vice President on Tuesday joined the Quezon City government’s groundbreaking ceremony of the 12-storey residential building project for Quezon City school teachers.

Earlier in the day, Duterte also graced the Quezon City Police District’s National Women’s Month celebration at Camp Karingal.—AOL, GMA Integrated News