A teachers’ group has sounded the alarm over what it calls a deepening education crisis, marked by chronic shortages in classrooms, teachers, and learning resources, as School Year (SY) 2025–2026 officially opens on Monday, June 16.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) blamed what it described as years of government neglect for the worsening conditions in public schools, warning that without urgent reforms and a significant increase in the education budget, millions of students will continue to suffer from inadequate access to quality education.

Members of ACT Philippines staged a sunrise protest at Mendiola to expose the “dismal state” of schools nationwide and call out the Marcos Jr. administration for its “chronic neglect”—which, they alleged, has resulted in a “further decline in education quality and deplorable school conditions.”

Teachers and parents transformed Mendiola into a symbolic classroom, arranging monobloc chairs and holding cleaning supplies to highlight how communities are compelled to use their scarce resources to compensate for government shortcomings.

ACT Chairperson Vladimer Quetua said teachers and students are once again entering a school year under an education system severely lacking in funding—where shortages abound and quality continues to decline.

Quetua noted that with every school year opening, it is the teachers who end up covering the gaps in schools—from cleaning and repairs to providing for students' needs.

“We bear the brunt of this systemic neglect, and today’s protest is our call for the government to finally carry the heavier burden it owes to Filipino learners and educators,” Quetua said.

The group emphasized that the country is grappling with a shortage of 165,000 classrooms—a gap that, given current funding trends, may take between 30 to 55 years to fully address.

ACT highlighted that due to this shortage, many schools are compelled to adopt double- or triple-shift class schedules, conduct lessons in makeshift classrooms, and institutionalize blended learning—measures that ultimately compromise the quality of education.

DepEd data indicate a shortage of over 56,000 teachers, yet ACT estimates that more than 150,000 are needed to bring class sizes down to the global standard of 35 students per class.

Meanwhile, the PSA’s 2024 FLEMMS survey reveals that approximately 18 million basic education graduates remain functionally illiterate.

“We have long argued that the gravity of education shortages necessitates a more ambitious and long-term plan,” Quetua said.

He pointed out that in 2023, the group had demanded that the national government hire 25,000 new teachers yearly until 2028 to eradicate the teacher shortage, plus an additional 5,000 annually to keep up with enrollment growth—totaling 30,000 new teachers each year.

The group also urged the Marcos-Duterte administration to build 50,000 classrooms annually until 2028 to eliminate the classroom backlog.

“But these demands fell on deaf ears—dismissed as unrealistic and impossible—while millions were squandered on confidential and intelligence funds,” Quetua said.

ACT teacher leaders and ACT Teachers Party-list representatives have launched Bisita Eskwela in Metro Manila, aiming to assess on-the-ground realities and collect firsthand accounts from teachers, administrators, and communities.

Meanwhile, ACT has voiced concern over reports that DepEd officials are allegedly instructing teachers and school personnel to refrain from speaking to the media, while members of unions and organizations are being urged to exercise extreme discretion when discussing issues related to the school opening.

ACT cautioned that this represents a “blatant attempt” to fabricate an illusion of readiness while obscuring the severity of existing shortages—ultimately undermining public accountability and restricting teachers’ right to free expression.

“We can only solve our deep-seated problems by acknowledging them and compelling the government to act decisively,” Quetua said. “It is high time to double the education budget and end the long-standing state neglect of our education system,” he added.