Screencap from EDCOM2’s Year 2 Report: Fixing the Foundations 2025.
Despite the green light to hire 16,000 new teachers in 2025, the Philippines remains in the grip of a teacher shortage that demands 30,000 positions to be filled.
Willie Cabral, the Department of Education’s (DepEd) Undersecretary for Human Resources and Organizational Development, explained in a DZMM interview that the approved 16,000 positions are part of a broader 20,000 teaching posts earmarked for the coming year. But the figure still falls short of demand.
“In our 2024 inventory, we recorded a shortfall of around 56,000 teachers. But at that time, because we were given 22,000 in 2024 and 20,000 for 2025. We are still seeing a shortage of more or less 30,000,” Cabral said in Filipino.
The estimate, based on enrollment projections and the country’s mandated teacher-student ratio, also marks a 46% decline in the shortage from the previous year.
Cabral emphasized the shortage is not static. “We need to continue monitoring if there is still a shortfall—that’s what we’ll ask from the DBM (Department of Budget and Management),” he added.
As of now, the DBM has not yet released the funds to the DepEd. But recruitment began as early as October 2024 to ensure qualified teachers can be deployed as soon as the budget is downloaded.
“The 16,000 teaching items are part of the 2025 budget. It’s the first tranche of the 20,000 total approved items,” Cabral clarified. “We still need to submit the next batch of 4,000 positions to the DBM.”
Once funds are released, the 16,000 positions will be allocated across the country’s levels, from elementary to junior and senior high school, and to special education and special science programs as well.
The Teachers Dignity Coalition made earlier observations of the shortfall following the DepEd’s announcement of hiring 16,000 new teachers and called on government meet the urgent demands of the education sector.