DepEd still short of 30,000 teachers

CEBU, Philippines — A high-ranking official from the Department of Education (DepEd) said Tuesday that the country continues to face a shortage of around 30,000 teachers, even after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) approved the hiring of at least 16,000 new teachers.

In a radio interview, DepEd Undersecretary for Human Resources and Organizational Development Willie Cabral explained that the 16,000 newly approved teaching positions are part of the total 20,000 slots targeted for 2025.

“Based on our inventory, we have more or less a shortage of 60,000 teachers—or 56,000 to be exact—at that time. But we were given 22,000 (teachers) in 2024 and 20,000 for 2025. We are seeing a shortage of more or less 30,000 (teachers). We based that on the number of (students) who are returning (to school) to study and the teacher-student ratio,” Cabral said.

He added that DepEd is continuously assessing teacher requirements and coordinating with the DBM for additional support, in line with the directive of Education Secretary Sonny Angara and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to ensure sufficient resources in schools.

“The P16,000 teaching items are included in the budget for 2025. It is part of the 20,000 (teaching items) approved by DBM so the 16,000 (approved teaching positions) is only the tranche one or first batch, we still have the next 4,000 (teaching positions) for submission to the DBM,” Cabral noted.

The 16,000 new teaching positions will be distributed across all educational levels.

“We will have (additional teachers for) elementary, junior high school, and senior high school. Also included in the hiring of new teachers are for the alternative learning system, special education teachers, and special science teachers,” he said.

Cabral said that DepEd has allowed school divisions to begin recruitment as early as October 2024.

“We have the registered qualified applicants where the qualified applicants are listed and ready to be hired. If they are included in the list, the superintendents will call them to submit the final documents necessary for their appointment as teachers,” he said.

He also noted that school divisions may conduct a second round of applications if additional teachers are still needed.

“Their application should be sent to the school divisions. They can identify their school preference, level of education applying for, if it’s elementary, for secondary, whether junior or senior high school,” he added.

According to Cabral, under the Salary Standardization Law VI, a Teacher I position comes with a gross monthly salary of approximately P30,000.

Training

Meanwhile, DepEd also announced Tuesday that training for teachers in the 841 schools participating in the pilot implementation of the strengthened Senior High School (SHS) curriculum for School Year 2025–2026 will begin this week.

Under the revised curriculum, the five core subjects will now be taught over one academic year instead of a single semester.

“We will start the training of teachers for the core subjects this week. The principals (of the pilot schools) will also be called so that they will be given enough orientation on how to implement the new Senior High School curriculum for the new core subjects,” Cabral said.

Of the 841 participating schools, 580 are public and 261 are private. A total of 806 are located in urban areas, while 35 are in rural areas.

The five core subjects include Effective Communication, Life Skills, General Mathematics, General Science, and Pag-aaral ng Kasaysayan at Lipunang Pilipino.

“If before the (five) subjects were taught in one semester, now the five subjects will be taught in one year,” Cabral reiterated.

He also mentioned that DepEd aims for full implementation of the revised SHS curriculum by 2026.

“(By 2026), we will have the first senior high school, who will be Grade 12, and we will have a rollout (of the revised SHS) curriculum. We, led by our (DepEd) Secretary (Sonny Angara), all want to provide better education. We all know that we are facing various problems that did not only start now, but it’s clear that we need to accept it and focus on what we can do to improve the current situation,” Cabral said.

He also shared that a private partner will conduct a study to evaluate the outcomes of the pilot implementation.

Cabral noted that the 841 schools involved in the pilot represent 6.6% of the country’s total 12,739 SHS institutions.

School Year 2025–2026 will officially open on June 16, 2025, and conclude on March 31, 2026. — Philippine Star News Service (FREEMAN)