
Reports of public school teachers leaving the country for job opportunities abroad are not new, and it has been one of the reasons for the teacher shortage that has plagued our education system.
It is one of the issues that the newly established Cabinet cluster on education will face, after it was greenlit by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., will try to ensure that the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority develop a common agenda to close learning gaps and drive much needed education reforms.
Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara said the President understood the urgency of addressing the “very deep seated problems” in the education sector.
While he did not cite data on the exodus of teachers, he said it is a real problem, pointing out that there are reports that there are many schools overseas that invite Filipino teachers on so-called study tours where many of the invited teachers no longer come back.
To reach the ideal class size of 35 students, DepEd should hire 25,000 teachers annually until 2028, according to Alliance of Concerned Teachers chair Vladimer Quetua.
From 2011 to 2017, around 1,500 teachers left the country annually to work abroad, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. Many of them moved to China, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Japan, and Thailand.
The exodus of teachers is but an aspect of the persistent brain drain that has long plagued the Philippines. That phenomenon has not only lost us teachers, but also nurses, doctors, engineers, and all sorts of talent for the country, but the lure of greener pastures elsewhere has even forced thousands of Filipino families apart.
If the newly established cabinet cluster on education can find a solution to this problem, by making conditions for teachers better enough to make them think twice about leaving the country, that would be a significant achievement that will benefit not just the struggling education sector, but even the families of the teachers that were given enough reasons to stay.*