Providing the quality of education a learner needs demands time and attention. These, in the past years, have posed challenges due to the equally important ancillary responsibilities given to teachers for the school to fully function and be able to deliver public services. While the main functions of teachers are to prepare a daily lesson plan, deliver the lesson to meet desired learning outcomes, conduct assessments to determine the achievement rates of learners, and provide remedial classes to learners that need improvements, some administrative responsibilities other than teaching share time and attention that may compromise the main role of teachers in delivering basic quality education.
These include being the property custodian, guidance counselor, canteen manager, coordinator, librarian, school disbursing officer, school nurse, and several others.
To relieve these extra responsibilities of teachers, the department of education has been hiring non-teaching employees such as nurses, guidance counselors, administrative assistants, and officers. These newly hired employees are now the ones in charge of the added responsibilities of teachers so they can focus on their main teaching duties and functions.
Added to that, they are not only of help to teachers but also to school heads, especially the deployment of administrative assistants and officers in the schools as they function as support to the school head in managing the school in terms of human resource responsibilities such as recruitment and selection of applicants that must be coordinated to the Human Resource Management Officer in the Schools Division Office, checking of documents for promotion and deployment, and preparation of Equivalents Record Form (ERF) of teachers.
As to the keeping of 201 files for employees in the school, the Administrative Officer keeps updated personnel records for easy access to documents that are required in the processing of teacher's Step Increments, Salary Adjustments, and Loyalty Claims, among others. These have fast-tracked the granting of benefits and compensations to school employees.
Property Custodianship which was before designated to teachers is now part of the duties and responsibilities of an Administrative Officer. All procured supplies both common use and semi expendable are documented upon inspection, acceptance, and release to the end user. School building inventory taking shall also be properly accounted for by the administrative officer that includes but not limited to the condition of the building, tables, chairs, restrooms and lavatories, textbooks, and other school properties.
Moreover, School Disbursing Officer is now the responsibility of a mobile bookkeeper wherein liquidation reports are prepared, checked, and verified prior to submission in the accounting office in the Schools Division. However, preparation of documents needed in the liquidation reports such as Purchase Request, Purchase Order, Inspection and Acceptance Report, Requisition and Issue Slip, and Inventory Custodian Slip are prepared by the property custodian who is the administrative officer in the school. This shared governance of financial matters is done under the check and balance principle to ensure that no one person is in charge of all the processes of procurement.
Finally, administrative officers function as general administrative support to school heads and teachers, in which, they assist in the preparation of the School Implementation Plan and Annual Implementation Plan. They also assist the school heads in the preparation of School Form 7 or the loading of teachers on their responsibilities.
Thus, with the deployment of administrative support in the schools, teachers can now focus on their primary roles of teaching and can now provide a better quality of time and attention to the learners, resulting in better learning outcomes and producing more competent individuals who can contribute in the progress and development of our economy.
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