To : Undersecretaries
Assistant Secretaries
Regional Directors
Schools Division Superintendent
Elementary/Secondary School Principals

1. The Teacher Education Council (TEC) under the Department of Education is mandated to formulate policies and standards to improve the system of teacher education. In aid of its mandate, the TEC has collaborated with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in formulating a five-year teacher education program which is known as the Curriculum Initiative for Teacher Education (CITE) Project.
2. Project CITE which aims to address the lack of mastery in content and pedagogical skills/methods of teacher education graduates through a highly enriched double¬-degree for AB/BS-BSE teacher education curriculum was piloted by the Centers of Excellence/Development for Teacher Education (COETE) and the PROBE – teacher educations institutions (TEIs) with Level III accredited status. This project was launched in June, 1999.
3. The CITE scholars were selected by the Centers of Excellence (COEs) and Centers of Development (CODs) and were funded by the Commission on Higher Education.
4. The CITE scholars are bound by the “Service Obligation” as stipulated in the Scholarship Contract and while they are committed to practice their profession in the public schools, the time gap between their graduation in March 2004 and the LET examination in August 2004 poses a major concern.
5. To address the said concern; a meeting was held at the DepEd Central Office on March 23, 2004 among the Chairpersons of the Professional Regulation Commission and the Civil Service Commission and the Secretary of the Department of Education. It was unanimously agreed:
   1. That DepED shall hire and assign the CITE Project graduates for SY 2002- 2003 and 2003-2004 in public schools located near their places of residence for school year 2004-2005 only;
   2. That CITE graduates for SY 2002-2003, involving a total number of four hundred eighty three (483) graduates nationwide and who are LET passers shall be appointed under permanent status to new teaching items allocated per region; and
   3. That CITE graduates for SY 2003-2004, involving a total number of one hundred fifty one (151) graduates nationwide, shall be hired through a Contract of Service between the CTTE graduate and the Schools Division Superintendent with a basic monthly salary equivalent to the monthly pay of a Teacher I without the other monetary benefits and that funding requirements shall be chargeable against the Division Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE).
6. The full support of everyone concerned to ensure the effective implementation of this undertaking is enjoined.
7. Attached is the list of CITE graduates in 2003 and 2004.
8. Wide dissemination of this Order is desired.

Encl.:
As stated
Reference:
None
Allotment: 1— (D.O. 50-97)

To be indicated in the Perpetual Index under the following subjects:
APPOINTMENT, REAPPOINTMENT, EMPLOYMENT
POLICY
PROJECTS
TEACHERS

DO_s2004_031