SOMETIMES the teacher exists. The item does not. Creating positions blindly would be poor policy, too.
Government should know precisely where teachers are needed and whether hiring them actually reduces class sizes and workload. The learner knows nothing about plantilla items. She simply knows that Ma’am has many other names to remember.
Still, hiring 14,274 teachers will not magically repair Philippine education. More positions cannot by themselves fix weaknesses in curriculum, teacher preparation, school leadership, infrastructure, or learning recovery.
Nor should Congress restore ₱4.29 billion simply because the request sounds worthy. DepEd should show where the shortages are, which grade levels and specializations need teachers most, how the positions will be distributed, and what difference the additional teachers are expected to make.
If Congress restores the money, taxpayers deserve to know where those teachers will go and whether learners are actually better served.
This is also why the issue should not become another political shouting match. A classroom with too few teachers does not care which political camp wins the argument. Neither should legitimate questions about the budget automatically become accusations of corruption.
Congress can still change the allocation. That is precisely why budget deliberations matter: this is the moment to ask what was left out, why, and whether restoring it would better serve learners.
We Filipinos are fond of calling teachers heroes. Perhaps we should be careful with that compliment. Heroism can become a convenient subsidy when institutions expect one exhausted person to accomplish the work of two.
Teachers deserve recognition, certainly. But a functioning school system should not depend on extraordinary sacrifice simply to keep an ordinary classroom running.
Somewhere today, a newly licensed teacher is waiting for an item. Somewhere else, a veteran teacher is facing another crowded class and wondering when help will come. Between them sits a proposed national budget.
One is ready to teach. One needs help teaching.
And between them, for now, is a zero.
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Doc H fondly describes himself as a “student of and for life” who, like many others, aspires to a life-giving and why-driven world grounded in social justice and the pursuit of happiness. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions he is employed or connected with./PN
