
In response to the findings of the Second Congressional Commission on Education Year 2 (EDCOM 2) report that found a total of 24,916 public schools in the country having no principals, the Department of Education said it is planning to promote qualified teachers as its reaction to the worrying but unsurprising findings of the body.
In a statement, Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara said that the government is considering deploying principals to schools that lack school heads, aiming to implement a 1:1 principal-school policy.
“In our current policy, it is not automatic to have one school head per school. We will change that. When there is a school, there should be a principal,” he said, stating what should be elementary for people not familiar with how our education system apparently works.
Of the country’s 24,916 schools without a principal, 13,332 are headed only by a head teacher, 8,916 by a teacher in charge, 2,337 by an officer in charge, while 193 are led by the “undefined.”
Aside from promoting qualified teachers, the DepEd said it will also look into regions that have an oversupply of qualified principal applicants and reallocate them into areas that have shortages.
It is also exploring the possibility of offering the National Qualifying Examination for School Heads (NQESH) at more frequent intervals in order to support teachers aspiring to become principals, as passing the NQESH, or the Principal’s Test, is among the requirements needed by applicants to be reclassified or appointed as principal or assistant principal.
The DepEd is also looking into expanding targeted training programs under the National Educators Academy of the Philippines, its training arm for teachers.
As the country’s problem of having almost 25 thousand schools without principals did not happen overnight, there will also be no quick fix. At least now, instead of pretending that there is no problem, the DepEd is trying to do something about it. Hopefully the effort to correct this unacceptable degree of apathy within that government agency continues until all schools in the country have qualified principals, even if the public eye is no longer focused on the issue that should be a core concern for the Department of Education.*