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| Reference Material |
| The following article was emailed to us by the office of Sen. Ralph Recto Hire more teachers, cops, before we create 'super-sized' parliament By Sen. Ralph Recto January 12, 2006 The country needs more teachers and cops, not more legislators. Sen. Ralph Recto said government should put more teachers in schools and policemen on the streets before it creates a "super-sized "legislature. Among the Charter change proposals being pushed by some political parties is the creation of a single-chamber national parliament whose membership exceeds that of the present House and Senate combined. But Recto said "the areas that cry for personnel augmentation is not in lawmaking, but in teaching and peacekeeping." He urged President Arroyo to send a bill to Congress that would authorize the hiring of 50,000 teachers and 50,000 policemen over the next five years. Recto called his plan the "50/50 initiative". "Its goal is to wipeout the manpower lack in the National Police and in the Education department in five years. The countdown should begin now," Recto said. As of last year, teacher shortage in public schools stood at 12,131, "a somewhat deflated number as it was based on a 1:60 teacher-pupil ratio, when ideally it should be one teacher for every 40 students," Recto said. Yearly, the public school enrollment grows by 300,000, which in turn requires the recruitment of 7,500 teachers. While the 10,000 teachers which he recommends to be hired every year is higher than the projected yearly requirement of 7,500, Recto explained that the 2,500 "extra teachers" will be for government preschools. This is needed because President Arroyo, he said, had issued an order making preschool education universal by 2010, "entailing big investments in this area if this vision is to be achieved." On his proposal to hire 50,000 cops over the next five years, Recto said the current "uniformed strength" of the PNP of 119,893 translates to a one policeman per 724 citizens ratio. It should at least be one officer for every 500 persons, he said. With the country's population of 86.7 million growing by two million a year, the number of policemen that should be hired every year should be 4,000, but funding difficulties have made it impossible for the PNP to expand its personnel by this number annually. Recto explained "the number of 119,893 cops on the roll is what appears on paper but everyday reality would show that only a fraction of this force is on duty at any given time." "You have to divide this number by three shifts, then deduct those tied to administrative duties, those who are sick, in schooling, or suspended, plus those who are fired or retired every year, and you will arrive at a policeman-to-population ratio that is very alarming" he said. "The attrition rate in the PNP is high. The police rookies we induct every year into the force merely replace those who have retired, been suspended or fired," Recto said. Recto said salaries of 10,000 policemen and 10,000 teachers would amount to P2.4 billion a year, "which can easily be covered by the projected higher tax collections." Entry-level positions Teacher 1 and Police Officer 1 earn P120,000 per annum. ***** OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |