RECRUITMENT VIEWPOINTS FOR HIRING TEACHERS IN BASIC EDUCATION
SCHOOLS
Maria Carmela T Mancao
Philippine Normal University, Manila
Abstract
This study looked into the factors that Philippine basic education schools utilize to hire teachers. Specifically, it sought to answer the following: 1) What are the factors currently considered by public and private basic education schools in hiring teachers? 2) How important are identified hiring factors in processing teacher applicants? And 3) What teacher-training institutions are preferred by public and private basic education schools in selecting newly-hired teachers? The study used descriptive survey research design. Respondents were asked to rate factors according to the extent of importance in deciding which applicant to hire: personal attributes educational background, professional attributes, and possible supporting papers. The instrument included an unobtrusive query for the respondent to name teacher training institutions they prefer teacher applicants to graduate from. Out of 327 randomly-selected public and private basic education schools spread in 17 cities in the National Capital Region, only 15% responded despite provisions to facilitate the return of said instrument. Results revealed that the top specific recruitment factors deemed extremely important in the hiring process of teacher applicants were: Health Condition, Certificate of Good Moral Character, Communication Skills, College Degree, Demonstration Teaching Performance, Interview Results, and NBI/Police Clearance. Preparing college graduates for successful employment commences once students begin freshman year. With a college degree and diploma, graduates should have polished indispensable communication skills, mature with confidence, and exude with ingenuity and potential. Academic scholarship, combined with a solid character formation and genuine love for teaching, secure a wining formula in job application.
Keywords: teacher education institution, hiring, preservice teachers
I. INTRODUCTION
What are the significant factors that a teacher applicant would be better off prepared to secure
his/her successful employment? A cursory glance at Philippine advertisements on job openings for teachers reveal varied information that seem to hold no common factors, except that the teacher applicant has an Education degree. One may not have teaching experience. Feedback from teacher applicants, however, discloses the actual significant factors utilized by schools to hiring process. These include, among others: passing the licensure exam for teachers, the interview and the demonstration teaching performance.
Confirming this feedback from teacher applicants, the Department of Education (DepEd), during the term of Secretary Butch Abad (2004-2005), tightened the policy on teacher hiring for public schools:
Only teacher applicants who perform well in a personal interview, in demonstration teaching, and on a written examination in English and Filipino will qualify to teach in public elementary and high schools, announced the Department of Education today in its new policy on teacher recruitment and hiring.
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"We want to ensure that only the most competent and qualified teachers are hired", said
Education Secretary Butch Abad.
The new policy also requires that vacancies in high school English, Math, and Science be filled first by teachers who majored in those specific subject areas.
In previous years, teacher applicants only needed to pass the Licensing Examination for Teachers (LET) to qualify for hiring in public schools. However, the recently dismal scores of public school students and teachers in several nationwide achievement tests prompted the DepED to re-examine its standards.
The new guidelines also allow schools themselves to have the final say on who teaches in their classrooms. Committees composed of principals, teachers, and parents from schools with vacancies will select from the registry of qualified teachers those who best meet their needs. The registry will be screened and compiled by division offices.
(Communications Unit, Department of Education)
Despite this policy, however, several applicants have posted in tabloids, social networks, and in teacher organizations newsletters the ambiguity of the hiring procedure in applying in Philippine public schools. In one 2009 posting, an applicant for Region VII public schools lamented on how the "whom you know" politics is still prevalent, aggravated by the acceptance of gifts in exchange for teaching items (AnnMines, 2009).
In one job vacancy posting for a kindergarten teacher, a college degree was sufficient, regardless that one is not an Education degree holder (Sulit, 2012). In several instances, a mere requirement for an "equivalent" course to an Education degree would suffice when teaching posts are announced on the web (Job is Job, 2012).
Inherent in the role of educational institutions is to ensure that its graduates do not simply earn a degree, but that these are successfully employed. This concern stretches into matching the degree with appropriate work. In short, an Education graduate who is trained to be a teacher must teach and not work as a sales clerk or call center agent, etc. However, to be hired as teachers, the educational institution can very well facilitate the employment of its graduates by being informed on how teacher applicants are evaluated by prospective employers. Career orientation programs can be enriched with such useful information.
Several factors are pooled together by the school manager in order to reach a wise decision on which teacher applicant will best be an asset to the school. Based on the usual contents of resume and curriculum vitae templates, information on personal attributes, educational background, professional attributes, and certain supporting papers from local government offices (e.g. Police, Barangay) are all essential to vouch for an applicant's merit to teach according to the hiring school's standards.
This is the conceptual framework of the study: