13 former OFWs hired as public school teachers in Region 12

GENERAL SANTOS CITY--Thirteen former Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who are licensed teachers have been hired by the Department of Education (DepEd) in Region 12 under a special program facilitated by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Jeanette Escaño, coordinator for Region 12 of DOLE’s National Reintegration Center for OFWs (NRCO), said Monday the newly-hired teachers comprise the initial batch of former OFWs from the region who qualified for the flagship “Sa Pinas,Ikaw ang Ma’am/Sir” or Spims program.

She said the teachers, who were given the permanent Teacher 1 positions, are now deployed in various public schools in parts of Region 12.

“This is the first batch this year and more will be hired for the next semester,” she said in a press conference.

Escaño said their office has received a number of applications in the past several months and processed them on a “first come, first served” basis.

More than 40 former OFWs from Region 12 had been hired by DepEd since 2015 through the Spims.    

Spims is a reintegration initiative of DOLE that is being implemented in partnership with DepEd, Commission on Higher Education, Professional Regulation Commission, Philippine Normal University and the Technical Education and Skills Development Agency.

It aims to provide permanent teaching positions in public schools for OFWs who are licensed teachers. An applicant must be an OFW who has arrived in the country for not more than three years based on the current year, she said.

Escaño said it is open to OFWs who are passers of the Licensure Examination for Teachers or LET, with teaching experiences of at least five years.

She said those who have teaching experience beyond five years, or have no teaching experience at all, will need to undergo refresher courses.

Aside from facilitating the hiring, she said the agency provides additional assistance to the beneficiaries in the form of teaching kits and related supplies.

In the last three years, she said they provided PHP10,000 worth of teaching kits composed of computer tablet, voice-aide lapel and head-worn microphone, 32 gigabyte secure digital or SD cards, sets of flash cards reference materials, and writing tools.

Starting this year, Escaño said their central office increased the assistance to PHP20,000, adding a laptop computer and printer to the package. (PNA)