A week before the opening  of classes last Monday,  June 3, the Department  of Education (DepEd) announced that it needs 33,000 teachers  to fill vacant positions in public schools all over the country.

Of his total, 23,000 had  long been vacant. The 10,000 are new, additional  vacancies, determined  after the registration this school year.  These  are  figures added up by the main office from reports of school divisions  all  over the country.

Zamboanga  City  Division Superintendent  Felix  Romy  Triambulo  disclosed  how  Zamboanga  – one of the  country’s DepEd  divisions – is  trying to cope with  the problem on the ground. Speaking  at  a news conference, he said  that as the city population has increased to nearly one million, the division had asked the national office for 976 more teachers, but the request  was not granted.

Triambulo  said  he  therefore directed  school  administrators in the division  to  undertake appropriate emergency measures, as the policy is to accept all children seeking  enrollment.  Among  the  emergency measures were raising the number  students per  class  to 75, adopting multi-grade classes, and double-shifting --  one group of classes in the morning and another group in the afternoon.

He  said  he  appealed  to the local teachers  to “to give a little sacrifice for the sake of the academic welfare of  our  school  chilren, some of whom  may later become leaders of their communities.”

This is also  happening  in many  other parts of the country.  And we have no doubt  the teachers  are responding  to similar appeals from their own school officials.  For that is how  teachers  have  been through  the ages  -- ready to do more, give more, make the necessary  sacrifices for the children in their care.

At the start of his administration, President  Duterte  vowed to increase the salaries of government workers, particularly police and military men and teachers.  Congress  was  able to double  the salaries of the men and women  in uniform  after a year. The President assured the teachers they would  be next.

Teachers  and  other  government workers have been receiving  annual  tranches of pay adjustments, but they have not been as fortunate as the men in uniform. This may explain  why  the Department of Education  does not have enough teachers for the nation’s  schoolchildren.

The highest priority in  government spending  today is on infrastructure under “Build, Build, Build,” and   that is expected to boost national economic development  within the next few years.  The  nation’s public school system  may not  be as crucial  in the eyes of our officials, but  it is a long-range  program  that will ultimately be more important to our nation.

The  nation’s schools will have to undertake emergency measure s this  school year,  such as bigger classes and multiple shifting, but the basic problem of not enough teachers  is largely due to low pay. The administration and  Congress  must  give his problem  the highest possible  priority.