Public school teachers in Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur on Monday welcomed the Department of Budget and Management’s (DBM) approval to hire 16,000 additional teachers and 10,000 non-teaching personnel for School Year 2025-2026.

The move is in response to the call of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to ease administrative work at the Department of Education (DepEd) and give more time for teachers to upskill and improve the quality of their teaching.

In an interview, Michael Malvar, a teacher at the Sarrat National High School in Ilocos Norte, said the hiring of more DepEd personnel this year is a big help for schools as it will enable teachers to focus more on teaching and less on paperwork and other tasks.

“This move shows real support for our educators and will surely benefit our students in the long run,” Malvar said.

As a teacher for 15 years, Tricia Genirosa Ancheta, from Binacud Integrated School in Sinait, Ilocos Sur, told the Philippine News Agency that they only have one administrative assistant in charge of paperwork.

“As an integrated school, there should be at least three administrative aides for elementary, junior high school and senior high school to lessen our workload,” Ancheta said.

Madelyne Alegado, a multigrade teacher at Sideg Elementary School in Paoay, Ilocos Norte, said balancing teaching and non-teaching tasks is time-consuming.

“If our non-teaching tasks are lessened, we will be able to focus more on giving quality education to our learners,” Alegado said in a phone interview.

Before retiring next year, Leonora Melchor, a Grade 1 teacher at Mariano Marcos Memorial Elementary School in Batac City, Ilocos Norte, said she wants to see more administrative aides doing the paperwork for them.

“As a teacher, the hiring of more non-teaching personnel is beneficial for us. I hope they will be assigned in schools and not just in division offices because our voluminous paperwork is too much to bear,” she said.

Aside from curricular and extracurricular activities in schools, other educators here said that preparing lesson plans and other teaching methods also take time, prompting them to bring their pending work home. (PNA)