DepEd pushes promotion of 100K teachers as 2026 budget hits P1 trillion

The Department of Education has announced that it is maximizing its efforts to promote around 100,000 public school teachers, as well as the massive hiring of 65,100 teaching and non-teaching personnel, due to a record-high budget allocation for the agency this year. 

DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara, during a press briefing on January 6, expressed its gratitude to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as well as to the lower house, for the P1.015 trillion budget allocation, part of the approved P6.793 trillion 2026 national budget. 

“This budget allows us to promote over 100,000 public school teachers—a milestone that has never happened before,” Angara said. 

He said the lack of career advancement has been a long-standing problem in promotion across the education sector.

“Ito iyong rason kung bakit umaalis ang ating mga teachers, dahil sa pakiramdam po nila hindi sila na-appreciate ng pamahalaan, hindi sila napo-promote nang husto – halos isang dekada hindi na-promote, hindi tumataas ang suweldo,” the secretary explained.

Under the Expanded Career Progression, DepEd said teachers may now advance in ranks without leaving classroom teaching, reforming issues in the promotion system caused by plantilla items and natural vacancies. 

“Hindi na kailangang umalis sa silid-aralan para umangat,” Angara emphasized. “Sa ilalim ng ECP, kinikilala natin ang husay sa pagtuturo at binibigyan ito ng malinaw na landas.”

Under the ECP system, the department has promoted 16,025 teachers, with 41,183 more teachers processed for the next batch of promotion. 

The new budget comes with a 30% increase from last year, the largest in Angara’s political career, which also met the UNESCO benchmark of allocating 4 to 6 percent of GDP to education for the first time. 

Angara added that the budget will expand the department’s key programs, such as the School-based feeding program, which receives an increase in funding from PhP 3 billion to over PhP 25 billion.

The Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program, providing free tutorials for struggling students in Math, Science, and Reading, will also be funded with Php 9 billion. 

This will ensure that every school across the country will have access to a tutor. 

The 2026 DepEd budget will also be allocated for the construction of 24,000 classrooms, surpassing the initial plan of only 5,000 to 6,000 classrooms. 

Angara said that the department will no longer rely solely on the Department of Public Works and Highways for the construction. 

“Now, local government units and DepEd itself will have the flexibility to build the majority of these classrooms,” he added.