To address the nationwide shortage of school principals, the Department of Education (DepEd) announced plans to promote and reclassify over 15,000 qualified teachers to principals this year.
The DepEd said it will deploy successful examinees of the National Qualifying Examination for School Heads (NQESH) to fill vacancies.
As of 2024, 7,916 teachers have passed the NQESH. Interim guidelines will be issued to ensure principals currently assigned to offices return to their schools and to reassign principals to schools with the greatest need.
The department will also reclassify 14,761 Head Teachers I-V to School Principal I under the Expanded Career Progression Policy, and retitle 954 Head Teachers VI and Assistant School Principal II positions to School Principal I. Acting school heads will be prioritized for promotion, and eligible personnel undergoing retitling will secure principal positions in their current schools.
“This pressing issue is an eye-opener. So many of our schools operate without brains—because that’s what our principals are, the brains of our schools. Rest assured, DepEd is taking swift action to address this problem,” DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara, quoted by GMA News report, said.
The principal shortage was highlighted by the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II), which reported last month that 24,916 public schools lack principals.
The DepEd aims to implement a one principal-one school policy and plans to establish this 1:1 ratio by 2026, when it adopts the School Organizational Structure and Staffing Standards. This will involve creating an additional 5,870 School Principal I positions, it said.