A BILL seeking to address shortages in public school heads by mandating the Education department to fill all vacant principal positions within a year was filed at the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
Filed by Deputy Minority Leader and Party-list Rep. France L. Castro, House Bill No. 11432 also mandates the Budget department to ensure enough allocations to fulfill vacant positions in public schools.
The Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) last year reported that 55% of all public schools lack principals.
“The lack of principals can be attributed to the government’s policies on filling the principal plantilla items,” the bill’s explanatory note stated.
“Another reason for the principal shortage is the policy and practice of ‘clustering’ of DepEd (Department of Education), which essentially implies that if the school is small, it does not need a dedicated principal,” it read.
The proposed law requires “every public school” to have one principal and assistant principal to lead the school. “DepEd shall prioritize the hiring and deployment of qualified principals to schools currently without a principal.”
There are more than 45,000 government schools in the Philippines.
DepEd should also coordinate with the National Educators Academy of the Philippines to provide “continuous professional development programs” for school heads to improve their school management skills, the bill added. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio
