A group on Monday, January 19, called on the national government to urgently double the education budget, unburden teachers of excessive administrative work, and overhaul the national curriculum to address what it described as a deepening learning crisis in Philippine schools.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines made the appeal following recent findings of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2), which revealed a steep decline in student proficiency as learners progress through the basic education system.

Citing EDCOM 2 data, ACT said approximately 30.5 percent of Grade 3 learners meet minimum proficiency standards, but the figure drops to less than one percent by Grade 12—highlighting what the group described as a systemic failure to sustain foundational learning.

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“We have been sounding the alarm for years,” ACT chairperson Ruby Bernardo said. “Now, persistent data confirms that our education system is failing too many Filipino children,” she added.

“These findings confirm what we have long warned: the education system is in deep crisis, and it is students and teachers who bear the brunt,” Bernardo said.

While the 2026 education budget was touted as a historic allocation, Bernardo noted that it still “falls far short” of the internationally recognized standard of six percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — and that the “consequences are now undeniable.”

“We are reaping the bitter fruits of decades of neglect and chronic underfunding: teachers are overworked, underpaid, and pushed to the brink, while education is reduced to a factory for producing cheap, docile labor to serve the dictates of the global market instead of nurturing critical, socially conscious citizens,” Bernardo said.

ACT also stressed that years of underinvestment have left schools overcrowded, learners without adequate support, and teachers overwhelmed. National education spending, currently at only about two-thirds of the recommended minimum, remains insufficient to fund classrooms, learning materials, support staff, and decent salaries, the group said.

Beyond funding gaps, ACT highlighted the persistent overloading of teachers with administrative and non-teaching tasks that erode instructional time.

EDCOM 2 itself has noted that teachers continue to shoulder numerous ancillary duties that detract from their core mission of teaching and mentoring learners.

ACT said this burden is further intensified by classroom observations and the Performance Management and Evaluation System (PMES), which often require extensive documentation and compliance.

“Teachers are treated like machines, forced to perform beyond our capacity despite inadequate pay, scarce resources, and a classroom environment that sets us up to fail,” Bernardo said.

She lamented that teachers’ rightful benefits and promotions are even “dangled as incentives,” all while being scrutinized through rigid performance evaluations. “Yet when education falters, the government conveniently blames us, reducing a systemic crisis to a so-called ‘teacher problem,’” she added.

ACT added that many teachers work well beyond 40 hours a week, much of it spent on paperwork and coordination tasks that could be handled by dedicated administrative and education support personnel. The group reiterated its call for the hiring of more teachers and support staff to genuinely deload educators.

ACT also renewed its call for a comprehensive overhaul of the national curriculum, arguing that education must be rooted in the realities of Filipino learners and aligned with national development goals.

“The curriculum must be rooted in Filipino learners’ realities and the needs of our communities—not imported models that ignore local contexts,” Bernardo said. “A genuine overhaul must prioritize foundational skills, scientific and technological literacy, critical thinking, and relevance to national development,” she added.

With EDCOM 2 data now reinforcing long-standing concerns, ACT urged the government to act decisively.

“We call on the government to act decisively: double the education budget, deload teachers to focus on teaching, and overhaul our curriculum so that it truly serves the aspirations of our youth and the needs of our nation,” Bernardo said. 

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