Over half of Philippines' schools operate without a principal amid exam failures

During a budget hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, the Department of Education revealed that about 23,000 schools are without principals after most applicants failed the National Assessment for School Heads. Secretary Sonny Angara said the department may relax parts of the exam so candidates who fail specific domains can remediate instead of retaking the whole test. Only 6,000 principal positions were secured in 2026, and undersecretary Wilfredo Cabral confirmed that 22,000 of the nation’s 45,000 schools currently have principals.

Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian highlighted that the 2027 budget contains no funds for new principal posts, even though DepEd asked for more than 14,000. The agency plans to promote teachers through reclassification to fill some vacancies. Additionally, the department is hiring school counselors and teachers, with a target to fill all counselor vacancies by December 2026 and to create over 14,000 new teaching posts for 2027.