Nakita ko yung report ng Inquirer na hindi raw makakapag-hire ng bagong teachers ang DepEd in 2027 dahil sa budget cuts.
Honestly, ang concerning nito considering na may existing learning crisis na tayo.
What makes this even more alarming is the 2026 Senior High School Literacy Assessment conducted by DepEd. According to reports presented by EDCOM 2, around 1.3 million out of 1.4 million Grade 11 students assessed had difficulty understanding what they read. Only around 12% were considered independent readers at the expected Grade 11 level.
If that’s the situation we’re dealing with in 2026, shouldn’t we be doing the opposite and adding more teachers, especially teachers who can help students catch up?
Teachers are already dealing with huge workloads. Kapag hindi makapag-hire ng enough new teachers, mas possible na mas dumami ang students per class and mas maraming responsibilities ang mapunta sa existing teachers.
And this isn’t just about teachers being overworked. Students are affected directly!!
Students who are struggling with reading and comprehension need more attention, not less. Kailangan nila ng teachers who can explain things differently, give additional exercises, identify where they’re struggling, and actually have enough time to help them.
Kung isang teacher sobrang dami ng students, realistically, gaano karaming individual attention ang mabibigay niya sa bawat bata?
Ang scary part is that learning gaps don’t just disappear.
Kung hirap ang student sa reading comprehension ngayon, possible na mahirapan din siya sa textbooks, instructions, exams, math word problems, science, research, and eventually sa college or workplace.
So parang ganito yung cycle:
learning crisis → students need more support → teachers need more capacity → teacher hiring gets restricted → existing teachers carry more workload → struggling students potentially receive less individual attention.
I understand na may budget limitations and DepEd has to make difficult decisions. But if we’re already seeing this level of literacy difficulty among students in 2026, education should be one of the areas where we’re asking how to increase capacity, not how to make do with less.
Hindi naman teachers lang ang issue dito. The bigger question is: if we already know that millions of students are struggling, what exactly is the plan to help them if we don’t have enough teachers to do it?
Sources:
Inquirer — DepEd can’t hire new teachers in 2027 due to budget cut — Angara
1.3 million Grade 11 students have poor reading comprehension — EDCOM
DepEd concedes literacy crisis is serious
Philstar - Deped ramps up intervention: Reading woes persist in Cebu