Returning OFWs urged to teach

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has urged returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are licensed teachers to become mentors in the country.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said this is the opportunity for licensed teachers working abroad to practice their profession and be with their families.

Under the program “Sa Pinas, Ikaw ang Ma’am/Sir (SPIMS),” migrant workers who passed the licensure examination for teachers may apply for teaching positions with the Department of Education.

SPIMS is a reintegration program for OFWs who had returned in the last three years and who have had teaching experience in the last five years.

Those who had teaching experience more than five years ago, or have no teaching experience at all, will need to undergo an online refresher course.

Bello said the program aims to provide decent and sustainable work for returning OFWs as public school teachers.

The program has helped ease the country’s insufficient supply of public school teachers, particularly in the provinces and remote areas.

“The program has again benefited a new set of former OFWs who are now teachers. We are glad for the beneficiaries because they are back for good, closer to their families and loved ones and they now have regular teaching positions in their respective hometowns,” Bello said.

DOLE regional director Exequiel Sarcauga said a total of 19 OFWs in Central Visayas have benefited from the program which was also designed to “reverse out migration by enhancing their skills.” 

The new SPIMS beneficiaries formerly worked as teachers and household service workers in Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and Turkey.

Sarcauga added the beneficiaries are given Teacher 1 positions after having passed and complied with all the needed requirements.

Five of the former OFWs who hail from Cebu are now teaching in the public schools of Cebu City, Madridejos, Borbon and Lilo-an in Cebu. 

Fourteen beneficiaries, who are residents of Bohol, are now deployed in public elementary and high schools in Dagohoy, Trinidad, Danao, Tubigon, Loay, Cortes, Lila, Carmen, President Carlos P. Garcia, Talibon and Mabini in Bohol.