The Department of Education has reduced the administrative and reporting burden on teachers by 57%, freeing up classroom time that was previously consumed by paperwork, Education Secretary Sonny Angara said Saturday, describing protected teaching time as the sacred principle behind all of DepEd’s current reforms.
Angara made the statement in an interview on DZRH News program Special on Saturday on August 1, as part of the DZRH SONA 2026 Series featuring the Department of Education.
“Ang puno’t dulo lahat nitong mga reporma is to focus on teaching time. To get back to teaching time. Sagrado ho ‘yung teaching time,” Angara said.
Undersecretary Wilfredo Cabral confirmed the paperwork reduction, saying more than half of the forms and accomplishment reports that teachers were previously required to submit have been eliminated.
“Binawasan natin ang mga kailangan nilang report. Substantial po ‘yon dahil we were able to reduce ng 57%,” Cabral said.
Angara said teachers were being called upon to implement non-teaching government programs such as the 4Ps, the feeding program, and vaccination drives, all of which ate into the time they should have been spending in front of their students.
“‘Yung bakuna program, si teacher din ho ‘yun. Pero kung tutuusin, ang kinakain nun is teaching time,” Angara said.
To address this, DepEd is hiring 5,000 Administrative Officers and Project Development Officers whose sole function is to handle non-teaching tasks previously assigned to classroom teachers.
Angara said the department needs to reach about 80 to 90% completion on this hiring target, with the positions being created under the Marcos administration for the first time.
“It’s a wellness issue then for our teachers,” Angara said, adding that reducing the non-teaching load also gives teachers more personal time, improving their overall quality of life and job satisfaction.
Teacher Mariane Luchavez, a 27-year public school teacher from Valenzuela, confirmed that the volume of paperwork had long been one of the most draining aspects of the profession.
“Wala nang ibang ginawa,” Luchavez said when asked about what happened to teachers who were burdened with too many tasks beyond teaching.
Angara said the combination of paperwork reduction, support staff hiring, and improved career progression is designed to make teaching in a Philippine public school a genuinely rewarding and sustainable career choice.
He said the ultimate measure of success will be visible in the learning outcomes of students, adding that when teachers can focus fully on teaching, the results in the classroom will follow.
