Education Secretary Sonny Angara has committed to addressing the concerns of non-teaching personnel during a meeting with officers of the Department of Education-National Employees Union (DepEd-NEU) at the Bulwagan ng Karunungan, DepEd Central Office in Pasig City recently.

The meeting, attended by DepEd NEU national president Atty. Domingo Alidon, Undersecretary for Finance Annalyn Sevilla, OIC-Undersecretary for Human Resource and Organizational Development and Administration Wilfredo Cabral, Undersecretary for Operations Atty. Revsee Escobedo, and other DepEd and DepEd-NEU officials, focused on issues raised by the NEU and worked on developing resolutions to benefit the department’s staff.

A key topic discussed was the DepEd NEU’s proposal to review DepEd Order 002, s. 2024, which mandates the immediate removal of administrative tasks from public school teachers.

“We will track everything. I will assign HR and the operations team to take note of all the suggestions. There are many professions involved, and I am sure we can create a career path progression. It may take time, so please bear with us, but we will study it thoroughly,” Angara said.

The DepEd-NEU also suggested allocating the 2023 Collective Negotiation Agreement Incentive of P3,000, including savings pooled from DepEd field offices, and a retirement benefit of P20,000 for DepEd non-teaching employees across all governance levels.