DepEd needs 14 years to fill present shortage of guidance counselors

MANILA, Philippines — It will take the Department of Education an estimated 14 years to fill all vacant guidance counselor positions in schools due to the limited number of graduates from master’s degree programs in guidance and counseling every year.

Karol Mark Yee, executive director of the Second Congressional Commission on Education, a congressional body tasked with finding solutions to the current learning crisis, said that just about 300 graduates are produced annually by schools with the required master's degree program. 

Meanwhile, there are 4,460 vacancies for guidance counselor positions that DepEd has yet to fill as of March 2024.

"To fill all of the vacancies, it will take us 14 years with the current setup," Yee said in a press conference with DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara on Tuesday.

"Almost 5,000 [DepEd] plantilla positions are vacant, but if you look, almost no school offers MA in guidance and counseling," Yee added.

The Edcom 2 executive director shared the data during the press conference to illustrate how the country's shortage of guidance counselors should be addressed not just by DepEd, but also by other education agencies like the Commission on Higher Education, in a newly created cabinet cluster for education.

Yee said that the government needs to address the hiring problem as guidance counselors are the professionals tasked with providing students with mental health support under Republic Act 10627 or the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013.

"We are the bullying capital of the world, based on the [Programme for International Student Assessment]," Yee said.

According to the PISA 2022 results, the Philippines has one of the highest percentages of students who self-reported having been bullied during their school years.

The international assessment published in 2023 found that at least one out of three Filipino students were bullied in schools, specifically 43% of girls and 53% of boys. 

This was much higher than the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) average of 20% of girls, and 21% of boys. 

Yee said that international assessments like PISA and the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics have found a correlation between a