Political tinkering

Uriel C. Quilinguing

EDUCATION agency officials, as a matter of policy, could be transferred from present work stations to other places, at any given time, upon the discretion of the department secretary. This practice applies to regional directors, assistant regional directors, schools division superintendents and assistant schools division superintendents who, often, have little choice. They are like stones that keep on rolling and gather no moss.

While transfers and reassignments of RDs, ARDs, SDS and ASDS must conform to stipulations under Department Order No. 7, series of 1999, such is just a piece of paper. Such Order states that transfers and reassignments of RDs and ARDs shall be done every three years while that of SDS and ASDS every five years but this is not the case for northern Mindanao region.

In recent weeks, talks of impending movements of SDS and ASDS—all of them have not served for five years—have been in air and that they already had delivered their farewell messages. But not one of the 14 schools divisions has assumed their new posts. For obvious reasons there are choice posts, particularly the relatively small school divisions, but they could not their way.

Education Secretary Leonor M. Briones has the authority to call the shots at the national levels, but not at the regional and division levels, where every movement of SDS and ASDS and assumptions to posts need political blessing. This is so because these education officials are automatically local school board members and chair of the board of election inspectors during elections, hence the local chief executive would dip his fingers into who should his partner be.

For governors and city mayors, every single hair casts its shadow on persons they are unfamiliar with but have to deal with for adequately funded school buildings and facilities constructions.  

What complicates the regional situation is the fact that most of the current SDS and ASDS are from Bukidnon province and one other policy that states that no ARD or ASDS shall be promoted in his or her region and division of assignment.

By frequent moving, due to political tinkering, any moss gets knocked off the stone.

Meanwhile, these education officials know well that it’s only a matter to time they are to be moved to another place. This could dampen their eagerness to deliver and avoid responsibilities for multi-year projects.

That so-called “I belong feeling” could catalyze imagination and creativity of education key officials and achieve the needed synergy. Often, political tinkering of work assignments would be counter-productive.  

(Uriel C. Quilinguing is a former president of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club who, for more than three decades, had been editor in chief of Cagayan de Oro-based newspapers, including this paper.)