DepEd lost over 30,000 teachers, other personnel from 2022 to 2023

DISCLOSURES by the Department of Education (DepEd) under the Executive Summary of its 2023 audit report showed more than 30,000 teachers and teaching-related personnel left the agency between 2022 and 2023, the only full year of Vice President Sara Duterte as Education secretary.

Data from the DepEd showed there were 879,793 teachers as of yearend 2022 but the number dropped to 858,318 by December 31, 2023 or a decrease of 21,475.

On the other hand, the number of teaching-related personnel also declined year on year from 63,610 to 54,827 or a difference of 8,783. Included under this classification were education program supervisors, Principal I, Head Teacher I, and guidance counselors.

Even the number of non-teaching personnel also took a nosedive from 72,663 to 64,458 over the same period or a drop of 8,205.

In its Fourth Quarter Physical Report of Operation, the DepEd set a hiring target of 9,659 new teachers from its 2023 budget but only 5,591 available plantilla posts were filled up.

Out of its spillover funding from 2020 to 2022, the agency also opened an additional 3,420 posts, of which 2,708 were filled.

These new hires were already included in the yearend 2023 disclosure of the agency.

“The ongoing hiring process has been faced with certain factors that are beyond control, leading to underperformance in some areas. Despite our efforts to address these issues, the uncontrollable nature of these factors has contributed to the delay in the hiring process,” the DepEd said.

In all, the total personnel complement of the DepEd shrunk from 1,016,066 in 2022 to 977,603 in 2023.

However, for the same period, the agency’s Personnel Services (PS) expenses increased by P51.28 billion from P522.4 billion (2022) to P573.68 billion (2023).

Under PS, salaries and wages climbed to P374.55 billion from P345.08 billion the year before.

“Other Compensation,” which included various allowances and bonuses of DepEd officials and employees, went up to P123.02 billion compared to P111.33 billion the previous year.

Personnel Benefits Contributions showed an uptick from P41.847 billion to P45.308 billion while “Other Personnel Benefits’ increased to P20.665 billion from P15.036