Manila, Sept. 10 -- The Departments of Education (DepEd) and Budget and Management (DBM) on Thursday rejected reports that no funds had been allocated for the hiring of teachers next year, saying the proposed 2027 national budget includes P31.22 billion for the hiring of 64,530 public school teachers.

In a joint statement, DepEd and DBM said the proposed 2027 budget does not include another batch of newly created Teacher I positions because thousands of authorized teaching items remain vacant.

Of the 64,530 positions funded for filling, 31,614 are existing vacancies recorded as of April 24, 2026, while 32,916 were newly created and approved by DBM in May.

"These authorized positions remain available for DepEd to fill as qualified appli...