The Department of Education’s (DepEd) Department Order No. 002, which orders the immediate removal of administrative tasks from teachers’ workloads, will stay amid speculations from teachers’ groups that it might cause disruptions in schools.

DepEd Deputy Spokesperson Assistant Secretary Francis Bringas said it is too early to make speculations and urged them to wait for the results.

“Kung sinasabi nila na medyo malabong ma-ipatupad ito sa mga school, kalalabas lang nitong ating order at tingnan natin kung ano ang kahihinatnan nito sa field. Pero the order still stays na immediate removal pa rin ng administrative tasks ‘yung ipapatupad natin (If they have doubts on its implementation in schools, the order was just issued and let’s see the results in the field. But this order still stays, and the immediate removal of administrative tasks will be implemented),” Bringas said in an interview with One PH.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers expressed their concern earlier, saying the 10,000 administrative personnel that DepEd deployed are not enough compared to the total number of public schools nationwide.

Bringas agreed but noted that the order states schools can utilize their own funds for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) to hire more non-teaching personnel.

“Hindi pa sapat ‘yung ating mga non-teaching personnel kaya doon sa ating guidelines, naglagay tayo ng provisions na using the school MOOE, maaaring makapag-hire ng contract of service or job order ang ating mga schools para mabigyan ng administrative tasks ‘yung kanilang mga maiha-hire and as well a representation from the local school board para sa additional na non-teaching staff natin (The number of our non-teaching personnel is not enough that’s why we stated in our guidelines that using the MOOE, hiring through contract of service or job order for the administrative tasks is allowed for schools, as well as a representation from the local school boards for additional non-teaching staff),” he said.

Over the past two years, Bringas said DepEd was able to allocate more than 10,000 Administrative Assistants, Administrative Officers, and Project Development Officers I.

But since it is not enough for the ideal number of one-is-to-one for the 47,000 schools, Bringas said clustered schools can avail of the services of these non-teaching positions while DepEd is still working to provide more staff.

“Kung ideally magkakaroon tayo ng one-is-to-one, kailangan pa natin ng around 30,000 kung titingnan natin. Pero meron tayong allocation na 5,000 this year, meron tayong last year na 5,000. So, nakakadagdag na ‘yan doon sa ating tina-target (If ideally, we will have one-is-to-one, we still need 30,000. But we have an allocation of 5,000 this year, and 5,000 last year. So, that already added to our target)” he said.

One of the reasons that the order was issued was because teachers have the tendency to give more attention to their administrative tasks over their teaching tasks, Bringas said.

Included in the administrative tasks that was taken away from teachers are making of reports, acting as property custodians, financial and records management, feeding, among others. (PNA)