Philippines struggles to fill 20,000 teaching jobs: ‘we are facing a learning crisis’

The Philippines has 20,000 teaching vacancies to fill, a budget hearing has revealed, with sector insiders warning that the gap signals a mounting education crisis.

Those in the industry are calling for transparency in the teacher hiring process, including clear figures on budget allocation and positions filled amid problems of mismatch and improper targeting of job applicants.

At a House of Representatives plenary session last week, Antonio Tinio from the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) grilled officials over the lack of urgency, arguing that thousands of qualified applicants in the registry were still waiting for jobs.

This Week in Asia has contacted the country’s Department of Education for comment. At the session, it said that some positions were “hard to fill” because they lacked qualified candidates for certain specialised roles.