An ‘F’ for public schools


More than half of public schools in the Philippines have been operating without principals.

The Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) Year 2 report released on Monday showed that almost 25,000 schools under the Department of Education (DepEd) have no fully designated principals.

According to Edcom, a total of 24,916 schools are without principals, of which 13,332 are headed only by the head teacher; 8,916 schools by teacher in charge (TIC); 2,337 by officer in charge (OIC); and 193 are “undefined”.

This means that only 20,381 out of the 45,199 schools have sitting principals, according to Edcom.

“Compounding these issues are gaps in data; notably, 193 schools lack recorded school head data, with 65% (126 schools) of these being purely elementary.

“This absence of data poses significant challenges, as it may indicate that there are no allocated school heads in those schools,” the report pointed out.

“Overall, existing DepEd policies governing school head allocation are not being adequately enforced,” it added.

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“The observed inconsistencies in the deployment and designation of school heads across various schools highlight a critical need for DepEd to re-evaluate and refine its strategies for assigning school leaders.”

Edcom noted several “burdens and barriers” to the lack of principals of schools, including the low passing rate for the National Qualifying Examination for School Heads (NQESH) or the Principals’ Test based on the standards of the Philippine Professional Standards for School Heads.

The commission said only 36.93% of the examinees in 2021 were able to move forward in the Principal I position selection process, while the figures in 2018 saw poor performance in the exams, with only 0.64% or 148 out of the 23,000 candidates, passing nationwide.

“These low passing rates suggest that the exam may be excessively challenging, potentially deterring capable candidates from advancing in their careers,” it said. — Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN

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