DepEd’s SY 2023-2024 personnel data count the non-teaching and specialist positions each public school reports: guidance counselors, nurses, librarians, administrative officers and Special Needs Education (SNEd) teachers. Of 47,813 public schools with learners and personnel data, 29.6% report an Administrative Officer II (AO II) and 3.3% report any guidance position from any funding source. Only 1.1% report a librarian, 0.8% a nurse and 4.1% a Special Needs Education teacher. Outside the largest schools and NCR, a public school’s non-teaching staff is a bookkeeper or disbursing officer, perhaps a utility worker, and nobody else.
DepEd Order No. 002, s. 2024 moved administrative tasks from teachers to school heads and non-teaching staff. The National Education Plan funds the staff to receive those tasks. By 2028 it adds 12,078 Administrative Officer II items, 44,285 Project Development Officer I (PDO I) items and 40,853 School Counselor Associate I items. It also calls for a filled position for every Special Needs Education teacher item. The Filipino Learner chapter of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) Final Report asks for counselors who can read attendance data as a warning sign. The plan’s Recommendation 2.1.1 calls for functional health clinics in four fifths of large schools. All of this starts from the staffing that the SY 2023-2024 personnel file records school by school.
Key findings
- Only 3.3% of public schools report any guidance position, 0.8% a nurse and 1.1% a librarian. The Administrative Officer II, in 29.6% of schools, is the only common non-teaching position.
- NCR has most of the specialist staff. 22.1% of NCR public schools have a guidance position and 17.2% have a nurse. Every other region is below 5% for guidance.
- School level and size explain the rest. Secondary-only schools have a guidance position in 16.5% of cases and elementary-only schools in 0.4%. Among schools with more than 2,000 learners, 39.4% have one.
- Special Needs Education teachers are in 4.1% of public schools. The file reports 5,423 positions in 1,968 schools.
Non-teaching and specialist positions in public schools
| Position | Positions reported | Schools with at least one | Share of public schools | Share of learners in such schools | Learners per position (where present) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| School Principal I to IV | 20,968 | 20,741 | 43.4% | 74.6% | 826 |
| Assistant School Principal | 881 | 694 | 1.5% | 7.5% | 1,980 |
| Head Teacher I to VI | 26,068 | 16,572 | 34.7% | 39.8% | 355 |
| Administrative Officer II | 14,709 | 14,149 | 29.6% | 49.1% | 775 |
| Administrative Officer IV | 381 | 328 | 0.7% | 5.1% | 3,111 |
| Project Development Officer I | 796 | 785 | 1.6% | 3.7% | 1,066 |
| Senior Bookkeeper / Disbursing Officer / Bookkeeper | 18,363 | 8,648 | 18.1% | 45.2% | 571 |
| Accountant / Cashier / Supply Officer / Registrar | 2,078 | 1,356 | 2.8% | 16.2% | 1,807 |
| Administrative Aide VI | 587 | 425 | 0.9% | 5.1% | 2,002 |
| Security Guard | 2,485 | 1,395 | 2.9% | 10.5% | 980 |
| Utility Worker I | 5,501 | 3,902 | 8.2% | 18.1% | 763 |
| Driver / equipment operator | 192 | 137 | 0.3% | 1.9% | 2,274 |
| Guidance Counselor I to III | 1,618 | 1,133 | 2.4% | 13.4% | 1,918 |
| Guidance Coordinator I to III | 510 | 431 | 0.9% | 5.7% | 2,594 |
| Guidance Service Specialist (SHS) | 17 | 5 | 0.0% | 0.1% | 1,127 |
| School Nurse II (SHS) | 189 | 186 | 0.4% | 1.8% | 2,168 |
| School Librarian I to III | 518 | 441 | 0.9% | 5.9% | 2,663 |
| SPED / SNEd Teacher I to V | 5,423 | 1,968 | 4.1% | 14.3% | 612 |
| Special Science Teacher I | 4,144 | 2,041 | 4.3% | 17.1% | 958 |
| Instructor I to III (JHS) | 20 | 10 | 0.0% | 0.1% | 1,022 |
| Vocational School Administrator | 20 | 16 | 0.0% | 0.2% | 1,878 |
The table lists every non-teaching and specialist position title in the personnel file. For each, it gives the number of positions reported, the number of schools reporting at least one, and the share of learners those schools hold. The “share of public schools” column shows the structure of the public school workforce. Three positions are common: principals (43.4%), head teachers (34.7%) and Administrative Officer II (29.6%).
One group is moderately common: senior bookkeepers, disbursing officers and bookkeepers, with 18,363 positions in 8,648 schools (18.1%). These are the people who handle a school’s money. Everything else is rare. Utility workers are in 8.2% of schools, security guards in 2.9%, Project Development Officer I in 1.6% and Administrative Officer IV in 0.7%.
The specialist positions are rarer still. Guidance Counselor I to III positions number 1,618 in 1,133 schools, and Guidance Coordinator I to III positions number 510 in 431 schools. Adding the 17 Guidance Service Specialists in senior high and the few locally funded guidance staff, 1,574 schools (3.3%) have any guidance position. These schools hold 17.7% of learners.
School Nurse II is a senior high position, and the file reports 189 of them. Adding nurses paid by local governments brings the total to 403 nurses in 361 schools (0.8%). Librarians number 518 nationally funded positions in 441 schools, or 709 from all sources in 531 schools (1.1%). School doctors and dentists, all locally funded, number 236 in 89 schools.
Support staff by region, school level and school size
| Region | Public schools | AO II | PDO I | Guidance (any source) | Nurse (any source) | Librarian (any source) | Security guard | Utility worker | SNEd teacher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BARMM | 2,155 | 0.2% | 0.0% | 1.3% | 0.5% | 0.8% | 1.6% | 3.5% | 0.2% |
| CAR | 1,844 | 42.0% | 2.4% | 3.6% | 1.2% | 1.4% | 2.7% | 6.7% | 2.5% |
| CARAGA | 2,098 | 47.5% | 2.9% | 1.7% | 0.5% | 0.8% | 3.6% | 3.1% | 3.6% |
| MIMAROPA | 2,382 | 14.2% | 1.1% | 2.3% | 0.3% | 1.2% | 2.5% | 6.9% | 4.3% |
| NCR | 827 | 62.2% | 3.0% | 22.1% | 17.2% | 7.5% | 10.3% | 26.0% | 21.2% |
| NIR | 2,231 | 19.5% | 1.0% | 3.6% | 0.5% | 0.7% | 2.0% | 6.8% | 3.9% |
| Region I | 2,861 | 45.9% | 3.0% | 2.7% | 0.4% | 1.8% | 3.3% | 10.7% | 4.3% |
| Region II | 2,539 | 44.3% | 2.2% | 3.5% | 0.3% | 2.1% | 3.4% | 8.2% | 2.1% |
| Region III | 3,729 | 54.5% | 3.7% | 4.1% | 0.6% | 0.9% | 4.7% | 19.4% | 5.0% |
| Region IV-A | 3,564 | 39.8% | 2.4% | 4.9% | 1.1% | 1.0% | 1.9% | 11.9% | 7.0% |
| Region IX | 2,993 | 36.9% | 1.2% | 2.1% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 2.3% | 4.7% | 4.8% |
| Region V | 3,862 | 19.5% | 1.1% | 2.9% | 0.4% | 0.9% | 3.5% | 10.2% | 2.9% |
| Region VI | 2,835 | 14.3% | 0.4% | 2.6% | 0.4% | 1.2% | 2.4% | 6.5% | 2.8% |
| Region VII | 2,810 | 19.9% | 1.7% | 3.6% | 0.1% | 0.4% | 2.3% | 4.5% | 3.8% |
| Region VIII | 4,179 | 9.9% | 0.7% | 2.3% | 0.3% | 1.1% | 1.5% | 6.1% | 1.8% |
| Region X | 2,531 | 25.2% | 1.7% | 2.8% | 0.3% | 1.0% | 4.3% | 7.1% | 5.2% |
| Region XI | 2,218 | 23.8% | 0.9% | 2.8% | 0.3% | 0.6% | 2.1% | 3.2% | 7.4% |
| Region XII | 2,155 | 36.8% | 0.6% | 2.4% | 0.1% | 0.5% | 3.2% | 4.7% | 2.4% |
| Philippines (public) | 47,813 | 29.6% | 1.6% | 3.3% | 0.8% | 1.1% | 2.9% | 8.2% | 4.1% |
AO II coverage runs from 62.2% of public schools in NCR to 0.2% in BARMM, where the file reports four AO II positions for 769,022 learners. Region III (54.5%), CARAGA (47.5%), Region I (45.9%) and Region II (44.3%) are above 40%. Region VIII (9.9%), MIMAROPA (14.2%) and Region VI (14.3%) are below 15%. The distribution does not follow learner numbers. Region VIII has 1.14 million learners and 432 AO II positions, or 2,643 learners per position. CAR has 358,204 learners and 794 positions, or 451 per position.
| Region | Learners | Guidance positions (any source) | Learners per guidance position | AO II positions | Learners per AO II | Nurses (any source) | Learners per nurse | SNEd teachers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BARMM | 769,022 | 31 | 24,807 | 4 | 192,256 | 11 | 69,911 | 12 |
| CAR | 358,204 | 94 | 3,811 | 794 | 451 | 24 | 14,925 | 118 |
| CARAGA | 700,194 | 49 | 14,290 | 1,036 | 676 | 11 | 63,654 | 172 |
| MIMAROPA | 817,395 | 87 | 9,395 | 353 | 2,316 | 7 | 116,771 | 190 |
| NCR | 2,101,985 | 321 | 6,548 | 528 | 3,981 | 162 | 12,975 | 915 |
| NIR | 1,134,333 | 148 | 7,664 | 452 | 2,510 | 17 | 66,725 | 218 |
| Region I | 1,101,162 | 127 | 8,671 | 1,351 | 815 | 12 | 91,764 | 335 |
| Region II | 809,342 | 119 | 6,801 | 1,168 | 693 | 7 | 115,620 | 156 |
| Region III | 2,478,610 | 288 | 8,606 | 2,120 | 1,169 | 29 | 85,469 | 465 |
| Region IV-A | 3,188,202 | 287 | 11,109 | 1,455 | 2,191 | 41 | 77,761 | 725 |
| Region IX | 1,106,260 | 84 | 13,170 | 1,141 | 970 | 17 | 65,074 | 309 |
| Region V | 1,581,329 | 153 | 10,335 | 774 | 2,043 | 17 | 93,019 | 255 |
| Region VI | 1,040,714 | 121 | 8,601 | 442 | 2,355 | 15 | 69,381 | 240 |
| Region VII | 1,456,462 | 117 | 12,448 | 569 | 2,560 | 2 | 728,231 | 259 |
| Region VIII | 1,141,816 | 117 | 9,759 | 432 | 2,643 | 13 | 87,832 | 186 |
| Region X | 1,159,212 | 108 | 10,733 | 718 | 1,615 | 8 | 144,902 | 271 |
| Region XI | 1,218,778 | 95 | 12,829 | 552 | 2,208 | 7 | 174,111 | 426 |
| Region XII | 1,062,105 | 68 | 15,619 | 820 | 1,295 | 3 | 354,035 | 171 |
Guidance positions are concentrated in NCR. NCR has 321 guidance positions, 22.1% of its schools have one, and there are 6,548 learners per position. Every other region is below 5% of schools and above 3,800 learners per position. BARMM has 24,807 learners per guidance position, Region XII 15,619 and CARAGA 14,290. Nurses are rarer still everywhere except NCR, which has 162 of the country’s 403 nurses and a nurse in 17.2% of its schools. Region VII reports two nurses for 1.46 million learners, Region XII three, and Region XI and Region II seven each.
| Level offered | Public schools | AO II | PDO I | Guidance (any source) | Nurse (any source) | Librarian (any source) | Security guard | Utility worker | SNEd teacher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elementary and secondary | 2,347 | 40.6% | 1.7% | 1.3% | 0.6% | 0.4% | 2.5% | 8.2% | 5.2% |
| Elementary only | 36,996 | 31.1% | 1.9% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 1.5% | 7.6% | 4.5% |
| Secondary only | 8,470 | 20.0% | 0.5% | 16.5% | 2.9% | 5.8% | 9.1% | 10.4% | 2.1% |
| Learners in school | Public schools | AO II | PDO I | Guidance (any source) | Nurse (any source) | Librarian (any source) | Security guard | Utility worker | SNEd teacher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–100 | 8,530 | 18.5% | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.4% | 2.7% | 0.2% |
| 101–200 | 12,528 | 18.8% | 0.6% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.8% | 3.6% | 0.7% |
| 201–500 | 15,288 | 27.6% | 1.2% | 0.5% | 0.2% | 0.3% | 1.7% | 7.3% | 2.1% |
| 501–1,000 | 6,185 | 45.2% | 3.3% | 3.1% | 0.9% | 1.4% | 5.1% | 14.3% | 7.5% |
| 1,001–2,000 | 3,248 | 55.4% | 6.2% | 14.7% | 3.2% | 3.9% | 9.0% | 20.5% | 17.0% |
| over 2,000 | 2,034 | 69.1% | 4.7% | 39.4% | 7.6% | 13.0% | 19.5% | 27.0% | 25.9% |
Level and size explain the rest. Secondary-only schools have a guidance position in 16.5% of cases, a librarian in 5.8% and a security guard in 9.1%. Elementary-only schools, 36,996 of them, have a guidance position in 0.4% and a librarian in 0.1%. Among schools with more than 2,000 learners, 69.1% have an AO II, 39.4% a guidance position and 25.9% a Special Needs Education teacher. Among schools with 100 learners or fewer, the shares are 18.5%, 0.1% and 0.2%. Among the 8,530 smallest public schools, only five have a guidance position and none has a nurse.
Special Needs Education and Special Science teachers
The file reports 5,423 Special Needs Education teacher positions, titled SPED and SNEd Teacher I to V, in 1,968 schools. That is 4.1% of public schools, covering 14.3% of learners, or 4,283 learners per position. NCR has a SNEd teacher in 21.2% of its schools, Region XI in 7.4% and Region IV-A in 7.0%. BARMM has one in 0.2% of its schools and Region VIII in 1.8%.
The National Education Plan counts 6,869 SNEd plantilla items in June 2025, 88.54% of them filled, and asks for 100% by 2028. It pairs this with a Child Find System that is to raise the share of children with disabilities these teachers serve from 7.8% to 34%. Special Science Teacher I positions, the science high school item, number 4,144 in 2,041 schools.
The file against the National Education Plan targets
The National Education Plan’s staffing table is built from plantilla items in June 2025, so its baselines are higher than this file’s counts for SY 2023-2024. The plan counts 34,519 existing AO II items against 14,709 positions reported here, and 1,500 PDO I items against 796 positions. The 2025 budget created 10,000 administrative and support positions in between, and a school can have an item it has not yet filled or reported.
What the file adds is the distribution. When the plan’s 12,078 new AO II items, 44,285 PDO I items and 40,853 School Counselor Associate I items arrive, the regions and school sizes in the tables above show where the gaps are. A PDO I in 1.6% of schools and a guidance position in 3.3% are the starting points for targets of one in most schools.
The Filipino Learner chapter of the EDCOM II Final Report argues that counseling is an early warning system: “schools need early-warning mechanisms that connect attendance data with psychosocial support”. It also notes that “less than half of guidance counselor posts were filled from 2018 to 2021”. On these numbers, a learner in a public elementary school in SY 2023-2024 had about one chance in 250 of attending a school with any guidance position. RA 12080, Bullying and School Mental Health covers EDCOM II’s findings on the counselor shortage and the counselor positions the law creates.
What the file cannot say
- It counts positions reported per school, not people, vacancies or workload. An AO II position reported in a school may be shared with an annex or vacant.
- In this file, nationally funded nurse positions exist only in senior high school. Elementary and junior high nurses, where they exist, are division office or locally funded personnel, and only the locally funded ones appear.
- The titles are those in the Basic Education Information System (BEIS) form. Teachers designated as guidance teachers or school nurses without holding the position do not appear.
What this means for school heads
The positions in this report are the ones that strand 2.4 of the Philippine Professional Standards for School Heads (PPSSH), “management of staff”, assumes you will manage. Strand 4.7, “general welfare of human resources”, assumes you will protect them. In most schools these positions do not exist yet. The designations that substitute for them, such as the teacher who keeps the books and the teacher who counsels, fall on the teaching staff that DepEd Order No. 002, s. 2024 was meant to relieve. The plan has scheduled new items for 2026, 2027 and 2028. A school head who knows that schedule, and who can show the division a staffing gap in the file’s own terms, can ask for them. The National Education Plan 2026-2035 guide sets out the schedule, and the PPSSH Domain 2 guide explains the strands.
Frequently asked questions
How many DepEd public schools have a guidance counselor?
In SY 2023-2024, 1,133 public schools reported a Guidance Counselor I to III position. Counting any guidance position from any source, including coordinators, senior high specialists and locally funded staff, 1,574 schools (3.3%) had one. Nationally there was one guidance position for every 9,621 public school learners.
How many DepEd public schools have a school nurse?
361 public schools (0.8%) have a nurse, with 403 nurses between them. Of these, 189 are School Nurse II positions in senior high schools, and the rest are paid by local governments. NCR has 162 of the 403.
How many DepEd public schools have an Administrative Officer II?
14,149 public schools (29.6%) reported at least one Administrative Officer II, covering 49.1% of learners. Coverage ranges from 62.2% of schools in NCR to 0.2% in BARMM. By school size, it ranges from 69.1% of schools with more than 2,000 learners to 18.5% of schools with 100 or fewer.
Download the data
The cleaned, harmonized DepEd files behind this series are free to download in CSV and Parquet, with a codebook and checksums, under the terms of use set out in the release. Download Cleaned DepEd School Data, SY 2017-18 to 2025-26 documents every file and column. The files themselves are at data.nash.com.ph, starting with the README, the SY 2023-24 school master file (CSV, 8.0 MB) and the nine-year enrollment panel (Parquet, 17.2 MB).
More in this series
- DepEd Principals and Head Teachers per School, SY 2023-2024
- LGU-Funded Teachers and Staff in DepEd Schools, SY 2023-2024
- DepEd Teachers and School Personnel Data, SY 2023-2024
- National Education Plan 2026-2035: Guide for School Heads
- DepEd Data for Aspiring School Heads: Where to Start
- For aspiring school heads: PPSSH Domain 2 Through the Data and the full report, Philippine basic education in numbers
Analysis and charts by Mark Anthony Llego for NASH Reviewer. Data: Department of Education personnel and learner datasets SY 2023-24 (public datasets); EDCOM II, National Education Plan 2026-2035. Charts may be reused only with written permission from support@nash.com.ph.