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Imagine trying to focus on teaching your students while juggling hundreds of meetings, reports, and projects—none of which directly involve the classroom. That’s the reality the Department of Education (DepEd) faces today, now entangled in 261 interagency bodies across government. While collaboration sounds good on paper, this growing web of duties may be stretching the agency—and its teachers—too thin.
The Expanding Web of Interagency Work
DepEd’s involvement in 261 interagency bodies is no small matter. Education Secretary Sonny Angara himself described it as “coordination spread thin,” during a recent hearing with the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2).
The department chairs at least 20 of these councils, and jointly manages 21 more with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). That’s a steep rise from just 63 interagency roles reported in EDCOM 2’s Year One Report.
This expansion was meant to improve collaboration across sectors—health, welfare, labor, and more—but the unintended result is that DepEd’s focus on basic education has weakened. The agency is now pulled in too many directions at once.
When Education Lost Its Center
Back in 1994, the old Department of Education, Culture, and Sports (DECS) was divided into three: DepEd for basic education, CHED for higher education, and TESDA for technical skills development.
The goal was simple: let each agency specialize and do its job well.
But fast-forward 30 years later, and the number of functionally illiterate Filipinos has nearly doubled—from 14.5 million in the 1990s to 24.8 million today, according to the 2024 Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS).
Why the decline? Experts point to “mission overload.” DepEd’s scope has ballooned due to more than 150 new laws and executive issuances since 2001, many of which fall outside its core mission of teaching children how to read, write, and think critically.
Teachers Doing Everything but Teaching
Perhaps the most visible consequence of this overload is felt inside the classroom.
Teachers are now doing tasks that have little to do with lesson plans or grading papers. EDCOM 2’s Executive Director Karol Mark Yee listed some examples:
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Conducting vision screening under Republic Act 11358
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Coordinating 4Ps compliance under Republic Act 11310
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Running school feeding programs
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Managing canteens
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Leading Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) projects
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Implementing the National Drug Education Program (NDEP)
These may sound like helpful programs—and they are—but collectively, they eat up hours meant for actual instruction.
In many schools, teachers double as social workers, health aides, and administrative clerks. Without enough support staff, they stay late, file reports on weekends, and still try to teach effectively the next day.
It’s no wonder burnout is so common in the profession.
DepEd’s Plan to Refocus and Rebalance
Recognizing the strain, Secretary Angara and his team are now trying to streamline. Their plan is to limit DepEd’s participation to “high-impact, mission-aligned” interagency bodies that directly affect education outcomes.
To make this happen, DepEd is forming an Education Cluster under the Office of the President—essentially a central hub that filters which collaborations truly matter.
Other measures include:
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Assigning senior DepEd officials to represent the department in key interagency meetings.
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Hiring Administrative Officers (AOs) in every public school by 2026 to take over paperwork, coordination, and reporting duties.
If successful, this could finally give teachers what they’ve long asked for: time to teach.
The Price Tag of Unfunded Mandates
Another challenge is financial. DepEd may be legally responsible for dozens of programs, but many come without full funding.
Among the underfunded initiatives are:
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The Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program under RA 12028
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The Alternative Learning System (ALS) under RA 11510
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The Mental Health and Well-Being Promotion Act under RA 12080
According to Angara, it would take over ₱1 trillion to fully fund all education-related laws currently on the books.
Senator Loren Legarda highlighted this funding gap during the same hearing, pointing out that the law mandates ₱30.5 billion for ALS implementation, yet only ₱78.4 million has been allocated. That’s less than 1% of what’s needed.
Without proper funding, even the best-intentioned laws remain paper promises.
Why Coordination Still Matters—If Done Right
Of course, DepEd cannot—and should not—work in isolation. Education overlaps naturally with health, social welfare, and technology. Programs like feeding initiatives or disaster readiness training can greatly benefit students when implemented efficiently.
But there’s a limit. Coordination works only when roles are clear and responsibilities are shared fairly. When every problem ends up on DepEd’s desk, the system breaks down.
Instead of doing everything, the agency needs to focus on what it does best: ensuring that every Filipino child can read, write, compute, and think independently by the time they leave school.
Personal Insight
As someone who has seen teachers multitask their way through endless forms, meetings, and outreach drives, I understand the toll it takes. Teachers enter the profession to shape minds, not to shuffle paperwork. A focused DepEd, supported by clear roles and adequate staffing, could bring back the joy of teaching—and the learning outcomes we’ve been missing.
Conclusion
DepEd’s 261 interagency roles reveal both the complexity and the confusion in the country’s education system. While collaboration is essential, spreading the department too thin undermines its main purpose: delivering quality basic education to every Filipino child. Refocusing on its core mission, hiring support staff, and fully funding key programs could finally give education in the Philippines the clarity and strength it needs.
Do you think reducing DepEd’s interagency work will help teachers focus more on students? Share your thoughts below.