The Philippine education system includes

Early Childhood Care and Development

(ECCD), Basic Education, Technical and
Vocational Education and Training (TVET),
and Higher Education.
 The Department of Education (DepEd) is
responsible for basic education, ECCD Council for
ECCD, the Technical Education and Skills
Development Authority (TESDA) for post-
secondary, technical and vocational education,
and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED)
for higher education.
Levels of Philippine Education
Department of Education (DepEd)
Organizational Structure
 Central Office

The Central Office (CO) is

responsible for setting
standards and translating
direction and policy by
these.
The Central Office (CO) is organized into:

(a) Bureaus, which address direct education-related

matters (e.g., curriculum, learning delivery, education
assessment, learning materials, organizational
development, and human resource); and

(b) Service units (e.g., budget; accounting;

administration; physical facilities; planning; others).
• Regional Office
• School Division office
• Schools
• Community Learning Centers
Number of Schools and Plantilla in DepEd
(Public and Private, Formal Education)
There are a total of 47,188 schools in the Public Schools
system (37,628 elementary schools, 1,511 junior high
schools, and 216 senior high schools [2020]).
In addition, there are 14,458 schools that are privately
run and 271 operated by state universities and colleges
(SUC) or local universities and colleges (LUCs).
Education Stakeholders and
Partners
Local Government Units (LGUs)
-Local Governments participate in education
through the Local School Board (LSB) and the
Special Education Fund (SEF). The LSB controls
the use of the SEF, which is generated from the
local real estate or property tax (equivalent to 1%).
The SEF can be quite substantial in size for very
large LGUs. The SEF for the city of Manila, for
example, is the largest in the country at PhP 1
Billion per year.

Most LGU SEF, however, are less than PhP 5

Million a year, reflecting the wide disparity in
LGUs. The SEF for 5th and 6th class status (lowest
in terms of revenue) would be in the thousands of
Commission on Higher Education (CHED)
-CHED oversees colleges and universities which
produce graduates who become teachers in the
system. This relationship informs the CHED and aligns
the teacher education curriculum with the newly-
established Philippine Professional Standards for
Teachers (PPST). The relationship, however, is at arm’s
length and could be closer, especially in teacher
education and development.
 Technical Education and Skills
Development Authority (TESDA)
TESDA oversees technical and vocational
education in the country where there is an
overlap with DepEd. The only difference is that
Tech-Voc in DepEd is below certification.
Certification in DepEd would expand the value
of this senior high school offering and should be
seriously pursued.
Early Childhood Care and Development
Council (ECCD)
The ECCD Council is a government agency
mandated by RA 10410 or the Early Years Act
(EYA) of 2013 to act as the primary agency
supporting the government’s ECCD programs that
cover health, nutrition, early education, and social
services for children aged 0-4 years. The ECCD
Council is an autonomous unit that is attached to
DepEd for administrative purposes.
 National Government Line
Agencies

DepEd works with a range of Philippine

line agencies on a wide range of
education-related programs.
• Department of Public Works and Highways
(DPWH)
• Department of Social Welfare and Development
(DSWD)
• Department of Health (DOH)
• National Economic Development Authority
(NEDA)
• Department of Budget and Management
(DBM)
• National Nutrition Council (NNC)
• National Commission on Indigenous People
 Private Sector in Education
Philippine Colleges and Universities and
Schools
Philippine universities are grouped into
associations that interact with DepEd in different
fora depending on the issue. COCOPEA
(Coordinating Council of Private Educational
Associations) is the umbrella organization with
five educational associations with over 2,500
educational and learning institutions among its
The five associations are:
•Philippine Associations of Colleges and Universities
(PACU);
•Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines
(CEAP);
•Association of Christian Schools, Colleges and
Universities (ASCU);
•Philippine Association of Private Schools, Colleges
and Universities (PAPSCU);
•Tech-Voc Schools Association of the Philippines
(TVSA).
The Government has a policy of
complementarity in education between the
private and public sectors (Philippine
Constitution of 1987, Article XIV, Section 4),
which is currently being tested by specific
government programs and policies such as
the free tertiary education program in state
universities and colleges.
Teacher Education Institutions (Private and
Public)
Philippine colleges and universities with teacher
education institutions (TEIs) are working with
DepEd, notably through the National Educators
Academy of the Philippines (NEAP), on teacher
education, particularly in-service training. At
present, this is limited to Centers of Excellence and
Centers of Development, which are identified by
 Academic Think Tanks

Academic think tanks are institutions that do academic

scholarly work of peer-reviewed quality and publication.
Two Philippine education think tanks have worked with
DepEd continuously over the past seven years: RCTQ
(Regional Center for Teacher Quality at the Philippine
Normal University, in partnership with the University of
Newcastle, Australia) and ACT-RC (Assessment Curriculum
and Technology Research Center at the University of the
Philippines, in partnership with the University of Melbourne)
through the BEST program.
SEAMEO-Innotech (Southeast Asian Ministers
of Education Organization) has done years of
collaborative work with DepEd on a wide
range of education topics.
Philippine Institute of Development Studies
(PIDS) has done studies on education
financing, out-of-school youth, senior high
school, private education, and education-labor
market dynamics.
 Donor Community
Major Donors
Two multilateral donors – the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank – have provided loans and technical
assistance to DepEd since the 1980s. Bilateral agencies
have also extended financial and technical assistance to
DepEd, including DFAT (Australia), USAID (USA), JICA
(Japan), GIZ (Germany), and KOICA (Korea). The UN
system has also extended technical assistance to DepEd,
notably through UNICEF.
The relationships and contributions
of these foreign donors are
coordinated through the Philippine
Development Forum.
 International NGOs
A number of international NGOs (INGOs) are
active in Philippine education. Save the Children
Philippines, World Vision, and Oxfam are three of
the largest. Many others work at a more local level
on very specific interventions in education
delivery, child support, health & nutrition, WASH,
and others.
Civil Society Organization (CSO) or Non-
Governmental Organization (NGO)

The Philippines has a large and active NGO sector,

many of which have supported public education. Two
of the most active are Philippine Business for Social
Progress (PBSP) and Philippine Business for Education
(PBEd), both of which are members of the Philippine
Education Forum created by DepEd.
One special organization created to work
exclusively with DepEd is Teach for the
Philippines, a local affiliate of the international
Teach for All.
The League of Corporate Foundations, with over 50
corporate foundation members, has many that
support education projects. These include such
foundations as the Bato Balani Foundation, the
Coca-Cola Foundation, the Ramon Aboitiz
Foundation, the Jollibee Foundation, and more.