Abstract—There is a need to investigate the travails of teachers in going through job placement issues with the public school system and the imbalance created due to the application of certain corrupt practices in their job placement. It was conducted to understand, describe and document the hardships and difficulties of applicant teachers experience after applying for permanent teaching positions in basic public education in the Philippines. Employing phenomenological approach with 17 teachers, in-depth interviews and focus group discussion, results revealed the high prevalence of impropriety and misconduct of Philippine Department of Education (DepED for brevity)officials, motivated by bureaucratic anomalies in the institution, political affiliations, unabated culture of corruption such as extortion, and money making activities of DepED officials, due to a tradition of decadence in the organization, which the study participants view as incorrigible to change, giving way to a culture of infectious crookedness. Factors in the struggles of teachers in their job placement involve agitation, harassment, legitimacy, adaptation and acquiescence, rationalization, lessons learned, resolutions, shame and remorse, and repulsion. Offered in the study was removing taints of corruption by putting authority over many people representing each sector of the public educational sector such as teacher groups, private stakeholders, and DepED officials as a means for sustained transparency and accountability in pluralistic decision making.

Index Terms—travails, teachers, job placement

Cite: Rostand S. Tolentino, "Travails of Public School Teachers: Job Placement Issues in Focus," International Journal of Learning and Teaching, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 28-38, June 2016. doi: 10.18178/ijlt.2.1.28-38