The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has approved an additional 4,000 new positions for teachers this school year. According to Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, this is part of the government's target to hire a total of 20,000 teachers this year.
Last month, 16,000 teaching positions were first approved using a P4.19 billion budget. The second batch of funds will come from the built-in budget of the Department of Education (DepEd) under the 2025 General Appropriations Act.
All 4,000 new positions are for Teacher I level with Salary Grade 11, or a salary of P27,000 and above per month. Of this number, 1,951 are for senior high school, 1,658 for kindergarten and elementary school, and 391 for junior high school.
According to Pangandaman, this move is in line with President Marcos' order to strengthen the education sector and ensure adequate teacher training in public schools. Recently, the DepEd reported that 27.6 million students have returned to class.
A separate report by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) revealed that 77% of LGUs in the country used a large portion of their Special Education Fund (SEF) for construction and renovation of classrooms. In the 2024 Seal of Good Local Governance assessment, 1,332 LGUs used at least 85% of their SEF for education.
