SENATE President Sherwin Gatchalian has sounded the alarm over a persistent crisis in the country’s basic education sector, revealing that nearly half of all public schools nationwide are currently operating without an officially appointed principal.
During a Senate budget hearing on the Department of Education’s (DepEd) proposed 2027 budget, Gatchalian disclosed that roughly 23,000 of the 45,928 public schools in the Philippines lack formal school heads. The Senate president strongly criticized the omission of critical funding to resolve this gap in the upcoming budget.
“Next year, this is the problem: there is no budget for the creation of principal positions. This is something that we’re trying to solve in terms of operations,” Gatchalian stated.
To systematically eliminate the deficit, DepEd initially requested P10.52 billion from the executive branch to create 14,126 new School Principal I positions. However, the Department of Budget and Management failed to allocate any funding for these new items in the 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP).
Gatchalian stressed that securing permanent school heads is vital to student and institutional success, noting that regular principals provide essential leadership and significantly boost classroom teachers’ morale. With a shortage of official appointments, thousands of public schools are currently under the temporary supervision of teachers-in-charge (TICs) and head teachers, lacking the full administrative authority of a principal.
Responding to the Senate’s concerns, Education Undersecretary Wilfredo Cabral explained that DepEd is tapping alternative administrative pipelines. Cabral noted that vacant leadership slots can be filled by reclassifying existing TICs and head teachers through the government’s Expanded Career Progression System. The career progression initiative has been allocated P12.09 billion under the 2027 NEP, which allows qualified teaching personnel to advance to leadership tracks without facing traditional promotion bottlenecks.
Despite the alternative reclassification pathway, Gatchalian maintained that a dedicated budget for new principal positions remains necessary to completely close the operational gap. The Senate leadership has signaled its intention to introduce formal amendments to the 2027 General Appropriations Act to restore funding for the new school head positions.
