DepEd: Counselors lacking to address bullying cases

Amid the increase in bullying cases among Filipino students, Education Secretary Sonny Angara revealed that the country continues to face a severe shortage of guidance counselors in schools, with the Department of Education (DepEd) resorting to creating “counselor associate” posts to fill the gap.

During the House committee on appropriations hearing on Wednesday, Angara said there are only 4,069 licensed guidance counselors in the country as of 2022, far from the more than 50,000 needed to meet the ideal global ratio of one counselor for every 250 students, as raised by Kabataan Rep. Renee Co.

“There’s a long-term plan, but the implementation of the mental health

and well-being [program] will cost over a trillion pesos, so it can’t be funded overnight And the over 50,000 filling up of positions you raised, according to the psychology professionals, there are only 32,000 psychometricians in the country. So there’s also a supply problem,” Angara said.

Few graduates

He added that over 4,000 counselor vacancies budgeted for this year are unlikely to be filled in the next five years, since universities are producing few graduates.

“There are no takers in the universities,” Angara said, noting that some regions even reported “zero enrollees” in guidance counseling programs.

According to Co, 65 percent of Filipino students reported being victims of at least one type of bullying a few times a month, while 40 percent are being bullied frequently, much higher than the 20 percent global average of bullying.

Angara agreed with this and even cited an Asian-Pacific Regional Study calling the Philippines the “bullying capital of Asia.”

In April this year, the DepEd reported recording 2,500 cases of bullying for school year 2024-2025, higher than the 2,268 cases logged in the previous year.

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To address this, Angara said they scrapped over 4,000 positions to create more positions for counselor associates.

“For 2026, under the proposed National Expenditure Program (NEP), we have 10,000 student counselor associates. They are easier to hire because they don’t need a master’s degree for this,” he said.

“They just need certain units in psychology and counseling, and other relevant courses,” Angara added.

Last month, the Department of Budget and Management turned over the proposed P6.7-trillion NEP to the lower chamber, with the education sector as its biggest gainer if enacted, with P1.224 trillion, including P928.5 billion for DepEd.