Over 20,000 Apply for 10,000 School Counselor Posts

More than 20,000 applicants have applied for the Department of Education’s (DepEd) 10,000 school counselor associate positions, Education Secretary Sonny Angara said Monday. Angara gave the update during the House Committee on Appropriations hearing on DepEd’s proposed 2027 budget, as lawmakers pressed the agency on its efforts to strengthen mental health and guidance support in schools. “Over 20,000 have applied for the 10,000 positions,” he said, adding that DepEd has 10,000 funded school counselor associate positions for 2026. He was responding to Pampanga 3rd District Rep. Mica Gonzales, who asked how many school counselor associates DepEd currently had and whether the 1,800 school counselor associate posts listed in the agency’s 2027 budget presentation represented its total complement. Angara clarified that the 1,800 allocation was for regional school counselor associates, which he said would be a first for DepEd. “For this year, we have 10,000 items for 10,000 school counselor associates, and as mentioned earlier, the Civil Service Commission issued last June 30 the qualifications, which is the last step for DepEd to be able to commence the hiring process,” he said. Angara added that all regional offices were already in the process of hiring and filling the 10,000 positions. On Monday, DepEd presented a P975.96-billion proposed budget for fiscal year 2027, including allocations for its attached agencies, before the House Committee on Appropriations, according to the department’s press release. The agency is seeking an additional P145.19 billion for critical DepEd programs not funded under the 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP). DepEd’s FY 2027 NEP presentation includes P2.4 billion for 50,337 laptops for teachers, P1.12 billion for internet subscription renewal for 14,261 schools and P2.25 billion for ICT solutions and capacity building. Angara said there was no shortage of applicants for the school counselor associate posts, noting that this was unlike the situation for guidance counselors, which he attributed to the lower qualification requirements for school counselor associate positions. As for the deployment of the school counselor associates, Angara said DepEd would prioritize schools with a history of high bullying incidence, particularly larger schools where student congestion could make monitoring more difficult. “But it’s not exclusively limited to those schools, but just as the statistics tell us that they’re more likely to happen in these schools,” he said. Angara said schools implementing the new senior high school curriculum would also be among those considered, as bullying incidents were more likely to occur there as well. The hiring push comes as DepEd faces questions over bullying and school violence. Earlier in the hearing, Angara said the agency had been strengthening its Child Protection Committees and accelerating the hiring process for school counselor associates. He said DepEd had shortened the hiring process from the usual three to four months to nearly 30 days. For 2027, DepEd’s budget presentation lists funding for 1,800 school counselor associates and 221 Schools Division Office counselors, while the agency is separately working to fill the 10,000 school counselor associate positions funded for 2026. Citing recent violent incidents in schools, Nueva Ecija 3rd Dist. Rep. Vergara said there was a need for a broader government response in the absence of what he described as an all-encompassing law addressing the issue. Angara said DepEd was willing to coordinate with other agencies, noting that school violence involved several factors, including school security, mental health, teachers’ ability to connect with students, the sense of community within schools and gun-control measures. “In other words, we need to piece together these different issues,” he said. Angara said DepEd had a scheduled meeting with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and other agencies to discuss the online aspect of violence. “Kasi bahagi na ’yon. Kung anong nakikita ng mga bata online, minsan ’yun ang nangyayari sa labas ng silid-aralan o sa loob at labas,” Angara added. (Because that’s already part of it. What children see online sometimes becomes what happens outside the classroom or both inside and outside it.)— MCG, GMA News