ARMM gov't working to fill teaching vacancies

• Source: http://www.philstar.com/nation/2018/01/20/1779628/armm-govt-working-fill-teaching-vacancies
• Saturday, January 20, 2018 2:05 pm

By John Unson (philstar.com)

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao will fill out all vacant teaching positions in its five provinces this year in support of the literacy agenda of the southern peace process.

Rasol Mitmug Jr., regional secretary of the Department of Education-ARMM, said Saturday only licensed applicants willing to work in far-flung areas shall be considered for employment.

Mitmug, a lawyer, was appointed by ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman only last week, replacing John Magno, who resigned in December after a three-year stint as regional education secretary.

Mitmug was the chief of staff in ARMM’s Office of the Regional Governor before he got to the helm of the regional education department.

The ARMM government, covering Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in mainland Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, has been addressing underdevelopment in impoverished areas through extensive educational interventions.

Mitmug said as a requisite, applicants for teaching positions in the region’s five provinces must pass rigid examinations required to gauge their competencies and mental abilities. Nation ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

“Teachers play a key role in community-building, in nation-building, so we have to make sure that the teachers we are to hire are qualified and committed to helping address illiteracy in remote areas in the autonomous region,” Mitmug said.

Hataman appointed 192 teachers for Sulu on January 4. He hired 75 more for Maguindanao about a week later.

Hataman said all of the newly-appointed teachers were tested and screened according to DepEd ARMM’s competency assessment rules.

“They were taken in based on how they fared in examinations and actual teaching demonstration drills. There was no `palakasan’ in their placement to permanent DepEd teaching items,” Hataman said on Saturday.

Hataman said they are also addressing claims by applicants in Sulu that they received last year from certain education officials “deployment orders” as prelude to their appointment to permanent positions.

The governor said they are now investigating on the issue.

“How can an applicant be given a deployment order without being appointed first? Apparently, there was a misunderstanding on that. We will address that fair and square,” Hataman said.

Hataman has removed, via a cleansing process initiated from 2012 to late 2013, thousands of “ghost teachers” from the payrolls of DepEd-ARMM that proliferated during the time of his predecessors.

The governor said the regional government’s introduction of reforms in its education department is meant to complement the normalization and literacy objectives of the Mindanao peace process.

The ongoing peace overture between the national government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is partly focused on the empowerment of Moro communities through socio-economic and education support.

“That is something we in the ARMM have been doing since 2012,” Hataman said.

Besides Mitmug, Hataman also appointed last week his executive secretary, lawyer Laisa Alamia, as regional social welfare secretary.

Alamia, also a registered nurse since 1993, took over from Hataman’s deputy, Regional Vice Governor Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman.

Lucman was concurrent regional secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development-ARMM since 2016.

Lucman, a Maranaw, resigned as social welfare secretary for him to freely support the government’s rehabilitation efforts in conflict-stricken Marawi City, capital of Lanao del Sur.