As classes resume in the Philippines, educators highlight unresolved shortages in classrooms, teachers, and materials that hamper learning recovery, despite DepEd's new reforms and budget increases.
The Department of Education (DepEd) has announced the opening of School Year 2026-2027 on Monday, marking the return of millions of students to classrooms nationwide.
However, teachers and education advocates warn that a deep-seated learning crisis persists, driven by chronic shortages in classrooms, teachers, support personnel, textbooks, and learning materials. According to Ruby Bernardo, national chairperson of ACT Teachers Party-list, despite a historic trillion-peso budget, the education sector remains under-resourced, with a classroom shortage of 165,000, a teacher deficit of 150,000, and a lack of over 300,000 education support personnel such as guidance counselors, school nurses, and registrars.
Millions of textbooks and learning materials are also missing. These deficiencies severely undermine instructional quality and hinder efforts to close learning gaps exacerbated by years of poor academic performance. Teachers also express frustration over additional workloads under new DepEd programs. Bernardo highlighted that the ARAL Program, despite its P8.9-billion budget and assurances that it would not be assigned to teachers, has become an extra burden.
Many educators continue to cover school-related expenses without compensation, even as the department claims reforms are easing their responsibilities. The three-term school calendar, intended to provide longer learning periods, has not alleviated heavy teaching loads, and teachers feel misled by promises of workload reduction. They argue that the hiring of 446,000 non-DepEd tutors, meant to support instruction, has not materialized, leaving teachers to manage expanded duties.
DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara asserts that a comprehensive reform package-including the three-term calendar, simplified lesson planning via the ILAW Framework, revised assessment guidelines, and a strengthened Senior High School curriculum-will benefit over 26 million learners, 45,000 public schools, and 900,000 teachers. The department emphasizes that these changes aim to clarify systems, improve teaching effectiveness, and focus on learner needs.
Yet educators maintain that without significantly increased investment-specifically 6% of GDP allocated to education, higher salaries, and a systemic overhaul-the reforms will fall short. They call on the Marcos administration to address these longstanding gaps to truly recover from the learning crisis and support both students and teachers
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