THE SECOND Congressional Commission on Education or EDCOM 2 on Sunday stressed the need to ensure equitable allocation of personnel and resources, particularly the P300 million mentioned by the Department of Education as initial budget for Administrative Officer II positions.

Executive Director Dr. Karol Mark Yee said in the EDCOM Year One Report, it was shown how there are severe inequities in the distribution of the Special Education Fund and the school maintenance and other operating expenses budget.

This is in line with the DepEd order freeing public school teachers from non-teaching tasks.

Yee further noted that while the order states school division offices and schools may hire personnel under a Contract of Service or Job Order which may be charged against MOOE or other alternative sources of funding, they found in its consultations that in some schools, 30 to 70 percent of their budget is consumed by electricity bills alone.

“We eagerly anticipate the full implementation of DepEd Order No. 2, s. 2024, or the Immediate Removal of Administrative Tasks of Public School Teachers by March 26, 2024, or no later than 60 days after the release of the policy”, Yee continued.

“We will continue to work closely with DepEd to ensure that administrative tasks will no longer keep the teachers away from their classrooms. This includes the review of the 1997 Organization and Staffing Standards for DECS Schools Divisions, Elementary and Secondary Schools, which has since determined the number of non-teaching plantilla personnel in our schools” he said.