GENERAL TRIAS CITY, CAVITE — Education Secretary Sonny Angara on Tuesday led the turnover of a modern four-story, 16-classroom building at Santiago Elementary School, signaling a major push by the Department of Education (DepEd) to modernize learning spaces and uplift teacher morale.
The new building, serving over 2,400 students, is equipped with smart TVs, ergonomic armchairs, and essential safety features like fire alarms. The project is part of a broader strategy to eliminate overcrowded classrooms and “shifting” schedules in rapidly growing urban areas like Cavite.
Decentralizing Power to Local Governments In a move Angara called “historic,” DepEd is now decentralizing resources by allowing local government units (LGUs) to take a more active role in school construction. “For the first time in history, we will download funds to LGUs to build parallel school buildings,” Angara explained. This shift, combined with expanded public-private partnerships and the “Adopt-A-School” program, aims to bypass traditional bureaucracy and fast-track classroom delivery.
A Career Milestone for Teachers Following the turnover, Angara presided over the mass oath-taking of 542 newly promoted teachers from the Cavite cluster under the Expanded Career Progression (ECP) System. For many, like Teacher IV Carmen R. Zorilla—who served as a Teacher I for 28 years—the promotion ended decades of career stagnation.
“I didn’t think this time would come,” Zorilla shared. “Under Expanded Career Progression, we’ve proven that advancement is possible. No teacher has to retire as a Teacher I anymore.”
Historic Promotion Target Angara revealed that DepEd aims to promote a staggering 100,000 teachers by the end of 2026. This would mark the largest promotion event in the department’s history. To date, DepEd has already hired over 27,000 new teachers and reclassified 16,000 positions to clear backlogs that have long dampened the morale of the country’s educators.
By pairing infrastructure upgrades with human resource reforms, DepEd is working to ensure that the “quality of education” is matched by the “quality of life” for those who provide it.