Teaching personnel down by 30,000 in 2023 – COA

MANILA, Philippines — Public schools nationwide have lost more than 30,000 teachers and teaching-related personnel during the last full term of Vice President Sara Duterte as the secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd) last year, according to the latest report from the Commission on Audit (COA).

In the executive summary portion of the COA’s 2023 annual audit report on the DepEd, the audit body noted that as of Dec. 31 last year, the agency had a total of 977,603 “personnel complement” in public schools nationwide, a decrease of 3.78 percent or 38,463 individuals from a total of 1,016,066 personnel complement as of the end of 2022.

The personnel complement for 2023 included 858,318 teachers, a decrease of 21,475 from a total of 879,793 teachers as of the end of the previous year; 54,827 teaching-related personnel, a difference of 8,783 individuals from 63,610 as of end of 2022 and 64,458 non-teaching personnel, a decrease of 8,205 from a total of 72,663 as of end of 2022.

Teaching-related personnel include those holding the positions of education program supervisors, Principal I, Head Teacher I and guidance counselors, while non-teaching personnel include the librarians, senior bookkeepers, disbursing officers and school clerks.

The same audit report showed that these 977,603 personnel complement (teachers, teaching-related personnel and non-teaching personnel) were handling a total of 23,225,427 learners as of Dec. 31, 2023, composed of 12,179,716 elementary pupils, 6,605,539 junior high school students, 2,606,646 senior high school students and 1,833,526 kindergarten pupils.

Despite the decrease in the actual number of personnel, however, the same COA report also showed that the DepEd’s personnel services (PS) expenses increased by P51.28 billion or to P573.68 billion in 2023 from P522.4 billion in 2022.

Under PS expenses, salaries and wages increased to P374.55 billion last year from P345.08 billion in the previous year.

Other compensation, which includes various allowances and bonuses of DepEd officials and employees, also went up to P123.02 billion last year from P111.33 billion in 2022.

The DepEd’s Fourth Quarter Physical Report of Operation for 2023, which is posted on its website, showed that the agency had set a target of hiring 9,659 new teachers, to be funded using its 2023 budget.

Only 5,591 of available plantilla posts were filled.