16/09/2026
๐๐๐๐ง๐ข๐ฅ๐๐๐ | ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐น๐ธ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ข๐๐: ๐๐ฒ๐ณ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ง๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐
โCan a nation teach more by spending less? The proposed 2027 budget for the Department of Education stands at P975.96 billion, which is P39.34 billion lower than its record-high P1.012 trillion allocation in 2026. For an agency mandated by the Constitution to receive the largest share of the national budget, this reduction is not just a number โ it is a warning that we are slowly abandoning our classrooms. It sends a message that despite the learning crisis, education can wait. But for students inside overcrowded rooms and teachers handling impossible loads, it cannot wait any longer.
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โReducing the budget of the Department of Education (DepEd), tasked with governing the nation's education is fundamentally wrong. While fiscal adjustments are necessary for any government, education must be prioritized, not penalized. This believes that a budget that shrinks while classroom needs grow is a budget that fails its purpose. We cannot demand better test scores and deeper learning while we invest less in the people and programs that make them possible.
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โThe most immediate damage of this cut will be felt in the quality of learning itself. Under the 2027 National Expenditure Program, there is zero allocation for new teaching positions, even as our schools still lack more than 14,000 teachers. It holds that quality education is impossible inside a classroom where one teacher faces 50 to 60 learners. When a teacher is forced to do the work of two, attention is divided, lessons are rushed, and feedback becomes rare. The result is not just crowded classrooms but exhausted educators and neglected learners.
โWhat makes this zero hiring policy even more unjust is its direct betrayal of new graduate teachers. Every year, thousands of education graduates pass the Licensure Examination for Teachers with the hope of serving in public schools. They spent four years training, endured months of review, and earned their licenses believing the government needs them. Yet this proposed budget tells them there is no room for them. This is not just a budget cut; it is a closed door on the dreams of a new generation of educators. How can we inspire young Filipinos to choose the teaching profession if the state itself refuses to hire them when they are most ready?
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โThe consequences for these new graduates are painful and wasteful for the country. Without items for new positions, thousands of licensed teachers will remain jobless, underemployed as private tutors, or forced to accept contractual jobs with no security or benefits. Many will be pushed to seek work abroad or leave the profession entirely, adding to our brain drain. This argues that the government is wasting its own investment in these young professionals. The state funded their education through state universities, trained them through practice teaching, and licensed them through the PRC, only to discard them. We are not just losing teachers; we are losing hope and talent at the exact moment our learners need them most.
โThe abandonment goes beyond teachers and strikes directly at vulnerable learners. The School-Based Feeding Program, which is designed to keep chronically undernourished children within school walls, will face a significant cut. This editorial believes that a hungry child cannot learn, and cutting feeding programs is cutting attendance, health, and comprehension in one stroke. At the same time, the subsidy for private education vouchers, including the Educational Service Contracting and the Senior High School Voucher Program, will be cut by about P3 billion. Thousands of students who rely on vouchers to continue schooling will be affected because their families cannot afford alternative education. Even more alarming, the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program which lowered struggling readers from 6.7 million to 2.2 million received zero funding, while Special Needs Education was cut by 18.5% and Indigenous Peoples Education by over 50%.
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โSome may argue that the 2026 budget was unusually high because P200 billion from flood control projects was realigned to education, and that the 2027 proposal is simply a return to normal. That point is understood โ government must balance resources across all sectors and fiscal discipline is important. However, the needs of education have not returned to normal. The shortage in teachers, classrooms, and learning support remains, and the arrival of new licensed teachers continues every year. Balancing the budget should not mean unbalancing the future of our learners and the careers of our new educators. True balance means giving more to the sector that builds all other sectors.
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โTherefore, we call on Congress to restore the cut funds and immediately reinstate the allocation for new teaching positions for our new graduate teachers. We urge the youth, parents, and educators to make their voices heard, to write to their representatives, and to join school discussions on this budget. We call on the Department of Education (DepEd) to defend its teachers and learners and not accept a budget that abandons them. Let us choose to invest, not to cut. If we truly believe that the youth is the hope of the nation, then we must fund the teachers who shape that hope.
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๐๏ธ: Divine Panaligan
โ๏ธ: Justin Quinlog
๐ผ๏ธ: Jade Wael
