Metro Manila, Philippines – The new school year (SY) 2025-2026 opened on Monday, June 16, marking a return of the old academic calendar since the pandemic, even as perennial problems hound the education sector.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visited the Epifanio delos Santos Ave. Elementary School in Manila, together with Education Secretary Sonny Angara on Monday morning.
In a chance interview, Marcos said the DepEd hired 16,000 teachers out of the 20,000 positions to address the manpower shortage.
He said the government also allotted 10,000 positions for administrative tasks to free up teachers from non-teaching duties.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), however, said the DepEd needs to hire 30,000 teachers yearly to fix the problem.
Meanwhile, the president said he ordered the Department of Information and Communications Technology to boost internet access in schools.
“Sa ngayon ang mga eskwelahang may internet lamang ay 60%, napakababa. Ang problema talaga kuryente. Kaya aayusin natin ‘yan,” said Marcos.
[Translation: Right now, schools that have internet access are just 60%. That’s too low. The problem is electricity. We’ll fix it.]
New things, old problems
The fresh SY will see the pilot implementation of the revised senior high school (SHS) curriculum in over 800 schools selected by the agency.
The newly-designed program cut the number of core subjects from 15 to five. Only two out of the four tracks were retained for students namely Academic and Technical Professional, with a bigger focus on elective subjects.
DepEd recently told NewsWatch Plus that the pilot run for the new SHS program will last for two years.
Meanwhile, the agency also extended the cutoff age for Kindergarten enrollees, allowing kids who will turn five years old on Oct. 31 to enroll from the previous Aug. 31 policy.
Starting this SY, DepEd is re-allowing the posting of visual aids in classroom walls, reversing the old policy introduced by then Education Secretary and Vice President Sara Duterte.
In a chance interview on Monday, Angara said the agency was not strict in enforcing the policy.
“‘Yung ibang schools nga gusto nila iyon ang expression ng mga bata eh, freedom of expression nila maglagay ng mga creations nila…I think we have bigger problems siguro,” he said.
[Translation: Other schools want that because that’s freedom of expression for kids to post their creations…I think we have bigger problems than this.]
While new things are in store for the fresh SY, the ACT has called out perennial problems in the education sector.
The group staged a protest in Mendiola, Manila early Monday, lamenting lack of teachers and classroom shortage, which they said can take up to 55 years to resolve under the current education budget.
“We can only solve our deep-seated problems by acknowledging them and compelling the government to act decisively. It is high time to double the education budget and end the long-standing state neglect of our education system,” Vladimer Quetua, ACT chairperson said.
Angara said the government aims to begin the construction of 105,000 classrooms for the next three years. The agency has a backlog of 165,000 classrooms.
