Despite an ongoing shortage of teachers nationwide, the Department of Education (DepEd) is set to put the recruitment of new teachers on hold in 2027, as the agency received no funding for new teaching items in the proposed national budget.
Photo: EDCOM 2
On September 7, 2026, during a congressional budget hearing, Education Secretary Sonny Angara confirmed that the agency will be unable to hire new public school teachers for the upcoming school year under the current expenditure blueprint.
”For next year, the shortage is 14,274 teachers, costing around P4.29 billion,” Angara said, noting his hope that Congress will restore funding for new teaching items during budget deliberations before the final spending bill is enacted.
Photo: Sonny Angara
Under the proposed 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP), DepEd was allocated P975.96 billion, which is roughly 3.88 percent less than its record P1.01 trillion budget in 2026. This constraint heavily restricts the agency’s capacity to recruit new educators and address long-standing resource gaps.
To counter these shortages, DepEd submitted a supplemental request detailing its primary administrative needs.
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Key details of DepEd’s proposed Spending and supplemental requests:
- 2027 proposed NEP budget: P975.96 billion (down from the enacted P1.01 trillion in 2026).
- Total supplemental request: P145.19 billion in additional funding requested for unbudgeted critical programs, including personnel and capital outlays.
- Personnel hiring wish list: Includes 14,274 Teacher I positions (P4.29 billion required), alongside separate requests for thousands of non-teaching personnel, school principal items, and support staff.
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The shortage of public school teachers remains a long-standing structural problem. In the Philippines, classes frequently see 40 to 50 students crammed into a single classroom, conditions that are far from conducive to effective learning.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) has previously emphasized that DepEd must hire tens of thousands of teachers annually to achieve an ideal class size. Meanwhile, ACT chairperson Vladimir Quetua underscored the systemic nature of the issue, pointing out the accumulated scale of the country’s staffing and resource deficits.
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Without substantial annual hiring, public schools will struggle to decisively reduce overcrowding, ensure effective instruction, or adequately monitor learner progress.
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