DepEd needs about 4,000 guidance counselors

Education Secretary Eduardo “Sonny” Angara. INQUIRER PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

To fill up the job vacancies for guidance counselors in public schools, the Department of Education (DepEd) is working to reclassify their current pay grade and make the requirements easier for applicants.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara on Friday acknowledged the lack of mental health practitioners catering to students, with about 4,000 plantilla positions still unfilled in public schools nationwide.

“We want to reclassify the position and we’ll ask for permission from the Department of Budget and Management. From Salary Grade 11, we’ll make it Salary Grade 13,” Angara said in a radio interview.

READ: Angara orders filling of vacant DepEd positions

Under the adjusted salary schedule issued by Malacañang on Aug. 2, government personnel under Salary Grade 11 will receive a monthly salary of P28,512 as first tranche this year, while those under Salary Grade 13 will get P32,870.

“That’s the starting [salary], which I find really low, [especially] for those already holding a master’s degree,” Angara said.

The new education chief, who assumed the post only last month, also blamed the dearth of guidance counselors on current policies that allow only those who graduated with a master’s degree to become a full-fledged guidance counselor.

Ongoing study

To address this, Angara said, DepEd is studying how those with an undergraduate degree in psychology and other related courses could also be hired in public schools.

“There is a law that you have to have a master’s degree … on guidance and counseling. Because of [this], it is hard to fill the positions that are actually available,” he explained, referring to Republic Act No. 9258, or the Guidance and Counseling Act of 2004.“So, there is a compromise and it’s not yet (final), but this is (being considered) in talks: to let bachelor’s degree holders … take the position, (provided) that in five years they finish their master’s degree,” he added.

However, Angara warned that this setup could make unlicensed guidance counselors “vulnerable” to being replaced by those with licenses.

Campus bullying

Despite the lack of guidance counselors, Angara reminded public and private schools to ensure that they have antibullying policies in place.

According to the annual monitoring by DepEd, a total of 7,742 cases of bullying was recorded in the school year 2022 to 2023.

The majority of the cases involved “physical” bullying (4,273), while the rest were classified as social bullying (1,742 cases), cyberbullying (1,137) and gender-based bullying (590).

A study by the De La Salle University and the Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) released in June showed that bullying was more common in public schools with large class sizes and mostly involved students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

In a 2022 study, the Program for International Student Assessment (Pisa) found that a third of Filipino students encounter a type of bullying at least once a week.

Career advancement

Angara earlier opened promotion opportunities for public schoolteachers when he signed the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) institutionalizing the “career progression policy” of Executive Order No. 174, which was issued by his predecessor in 2022.

Under the IRR, which he signed on July 26 or just six days into his DepEd post, the newly created positions of Teacher IV to Teacher VII will fall under Salary Grades 14 to 17, corresponding to a monthly pay of P35,000 to P45,000, based on the updated schedule.

Another new position, Master Teacher V, will be under Salary Grade 22, or about P74,000 to P82,000.