The Departments of Education (DepEd) and Budget and Management (DBM) on Thursday rejected reports that no funds had been allocated for the hiring of teachers next year, saying the proposed 2027 national budget includes P31.22 billion for the hiring of 64,530 public school teachers.
In a joint statement, DepEd and DBM said the proposed 2027 budget does not include another batch of newly created Teacher I positions because thousands of authorized teaching items remain vacant.
Of the 64,530 positions funded for filling, 31,614 are existing vacancies recorded as of April 24, 2026, while 32,916 were newly created and approved by DBM in May.
“These authorized positions remain available for DepEd to fill as qualified applicants are hired. They do not expire simply because they are not immediately filled within the year they were created,” the agencies said.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara said the clarification should assure teachers and applicants that government hiring will continue.
“Let us be clear: hindi titigil ang hiring ng teachers (hiring of teachers will not stop). We have thousands of authorized teaching positions that DepEd can continue to fill. The immediate task is to get qualified teachers into these vacant positions as quickly as possible and deploy them where they are needed most,” Angara said.
As of Sept. 4, DepEd had filled 33,250 teaching positions, leaving 25,019 unfilled. Of the positions created in 2026, 22,649 had been filled while 8,733 remained vacant.
Acting Budget Secretary Kim Robert de Leon said the absence of new Teacher I items in the proposed 2027 budget should not be mistaken for a hiring freeze.
“It is simply incorrect to conclude from that that there is no funding to hire teachers,” De Leon said.
“Marami pa ang (There are a lot of) unfilled vacant teaching positions. That is precisely why we have allotted funding for this,” he added.
The clarification followed reports that DepEd’s request for 14,274 additional teaching positions worth an estimated PHP4.29 billion was not included in the proposed 2027 budget.
DepEd and DBM said those positions are a separate proposed batch and are not part of the 64,530 authorized posts already funded for filling.
The proposed budget also contains PHP7.582 billion for substitute teachers, helping keep classrooms staffed when regular teachers are temporarily unavailable.
Beyond hiring, the government has released PHP8.68 billion in salary differentials for 93,344 personnel covered by the Expanded Career Progression System. Another PHP12.09 billion is proposed for the program in 2027, targeting 135,063 position reclassifications.
The budget also earmarks PHP10.364 billion for the PHP10,000 Teaching Allowance and PHP38.782 billion for teacher benefits under the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers.
Another PHP840.589 million is proposed for 2,135 non-teaching positions to ease teachers’ administrative workload, while PHP801.583 million would fund 2,021 school counseling positions. (PNA)
