SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian expressed strong support for the creation of 10,000 non-teaching positions in public schools, calling it a crucial step toward easing the administrative burden on teachers and improving student learning outcomes.

Gatchalian emphasized that the new roles would allow teachers to concentrate on their core responsibilities inside the classroom, rather than being sidetracked by administrative and other non-teaching tasks.

“The creation of 10,000 new non-teaching positions will help meet our public schools’ need for personnel focused on non-teaching tasks. This will also spare our teachers from administrative and ancillary work that distracts them from teaching and improving learners’ outcomes,” he said.

He also urged the Department of Education to fast-track the hiring process to ensure schools benefit from the additional manpower as soon as possible.

“While these positions are available, the Department of Education should ensure that the hiring process is streamlined and expedited so they can be filled quickly,” Gatchalian added.

He stressed that having adequate non-teaching staff is essential to allowing teachers to fully focus on instruction.

“If we can ensure that we have enough non-teaching staff, we can help our teachers focus on teaching,” he said.

Gatchalian has long been an advocate for education reform and improved support systems for Filipino teachers, consistently pushing for measures to professionalize and uplift the education sector.