DepEd sets up Merit Selection Plan to strengthen recruitment process

The Department of Education (DepEd) has set up a competency-based Merit Selection Plan (MSP) to strengthen its recruitment process and increase personnel quality and retention.

Adhering to the principles of merit, competence, fitness, accountability, transparency, and equal opportunity, the Department issued DepEd Order No. 019, s. 2022, which will serve as a guide in the selection, hiring, appointment, and promotion of individuals in the teaching, school administration, related teaching, and non-teaching positions in all DepEd offices and schools.

“The issuance of the Merit Selection Plan is one of many interventions of the Department to improve the human resource policies and processes in order to better serve our learners and stakeholders. With this policy in place, we can ensure that we get and retain the right people for the right jobs in DepEd,” Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones said.

The policy aligns and contextualize DepEd’s internal system on application, evaluation, selection, and appointment with the provisions of the Civil Service Commission (CSC)’s Omnibus Rules on Appointments and Other Human Resource Actions (ORAOHRA).

“The DepEd MSP is aimed at ensuring that the organization and its manpower are able to respond to challenges and opportunities of the 21st century with a focus on the delivery of quality, accessible, relevant, and liberating basic education,” the Department Order reads.

Moreover, it provides for a systematic method of selecting employees for appointment to first and second level positions, including second-level executive/managerial positions, and covers all teaching, school administration, related teaching, and non-teaching positions in the Central Office (CO), Regional Offices (ROs), Schools Division Offices (SDOs), and Schools.

DepEd applicants will also be assessed based on their competency, performance or prior work experience, outstanding accomplishments, education, learning and development interventions, potential, behavioral events interview, and other appropriate evaluative assessments.

To further strengthen transparency, DepEd adopts an Open Ranking System in the comparative assessment process, where applicants will witness an actual evaluation of scores of all applicants present.

Meanwhile, a performance rating of at least Very Satisfactory (VS) in the last rating period before the date of assessment or screening is necessary for applicants for promotion or transfer, except for those vying for promotion to second-level entry positions.

To promote transparency and equal opportunity, all vacant positions in DepEd needed to be filled, including vacant executive/managerial positions in the second and third levels, their corresponding qualification standards, and plantilla item numbers, will be posted on the CSC, DepEd websites, newspaper, social media, job search websites, and job fairs to reach a wider range of applicants.

The implementation of the new MSP shall commence on September 01, 2022 to allow ample time for the adoption of the transitory measures that ensures proper and effective implementation of the policy such as issuance of operational guidelines and capability building of HR implementers. DepEd Memorandum No. 041, s. 2022 states that “all vacant positions that are published and posted prior to September 01, 2022, including all ongoing recruitment, selection, and appointment actions, shall continue to be governed by existing policies and guidelines.”