Counseling deserves better support

By Herman M. Lagon

A student walks into school carrying things that never appear in the class record: a fight between parents before breakfast, three months of bullying in a group chat, panic over failing mathematics, a breakup that feels like the end of civilization, or thoughts too frightening to tell anyone at home. We tell that child, quite correctly, to seek help. There is only one awkward question: From whom?

That is why EDCOM 2’s call for roughly one school counselor associate for every 500 learners deserves serious support. With more than 26 million enrollees and around 47,000 schools nationwide, the arithmetic alone is intimidating. Executive Director Karol Mark Yee said the government would need funding for about 37,000 more associates beyond the first 10,000 positions, and even one per school would be inadequate on campuses with several thousand learners. One counselor facing 7,000 students is not a guidance program. That is a waiting list with an office.

The shortage becomes stranger when we consider what we ask of a Registered Guidance Counselor. Under our present professional system, becoming one requires graduate preparation and professional licensure. EDCOM 2 reported that fewer than 300 students nationwide graduated with a master’s degree in guidance counseling in SY 2023–2024. Earlier figures showed around 4,460 vacant DepEd guidance counselor positions, while the country was producing only about 300 graduates annually. At that pace, EDCOM 2 calculated that filling existing vacancies alone could take around 14 years.

Then we wonder why applicants are not forming a line around the block.

Part of the answer is compensation. We cannot require a college degree, a master’s degree, specialized training, a PRC license, continuing professional development, ethical accountability, and the emotional steadiness to sit with a suicidal teenager — and then compensate the profession as though all those requirements were an interesting hobby. I would support raising the entry level for Registered Guidance Counselors from a starting Salary Grade 11 (PHP 31,705) to at least a starting Salary Grade 16 (PHP 45,694), subject, of course, to proper government review and position classification. Salary is not everything. But neither can we keep saying “para sa bata” whenever the professional asks how to pay the electric bill.

I say this with particular sympathy because I am an RGC myself, and much of my professional life has revolved around formation. I spent 21 years doing formation work in a Jesuit school and have now spent another four in a state university. Guidance work looks deceptively gentle from the outside. People imagine career tests, orientation programs, bulletin boards, and the occasional heart-to-heart conversation. Those happen. So do disclosures of abuse, self-harm, family violence, severe anxiety, bullying, grief, pregnancy, addiction, and situations where one careless response can worsen an already fragile moment. Some days, you listen to stories you cannot discuss at the dinner table because confidentiality follows you home. Compassion matters enormously. Competence matters just as much.

That belief has become even clearer through the work we have been doing in different communities. In San Enrique, we are implementing a two-year training program for guidance associates in partnership with WVSU, the LGU of San Enrique, ISUFST, and DepEd Iloilo. I have also been involved in developing a microcredential program on psychological first aid, psychological testing initiatives with the Anilao LGU, PFA training in the Schools Division of Passi City, and the yearly career guidance sessions with senior high school students across schools in Iloilo’s Fourth District. Different settings, different needs, but the lesson keeps coming back: Caring teachers and school personnel can do much more when given practical preparation in listening, PFA, referral, career guidance, and learner support. But these experiences also remind me of an important boundary. We can train more people to notice, listen, respond, and refer — and we should — but a well-trained first responder should never be expected to replace the specialist a difficult case may eventually require.

There is encouraging movement. The 2026 national budget provides more than PHP 182 million for postgraduate scholarships in guidance counseling, psychology, and related specializations, including support intended for DepEd personnel across Schools Division Offices. Scholars are expected to render return service in public schools or government health facilities, with underserved communities receiving priority. That is sensible policy. But scholarships solve only the entrance problem. Government must also make the career attractive enough for professionals to remain after earning the degree.

CHED has work to do here, too. EDCOM 2 previously reported that only 43 higher education institutions offered guidance and counseling programs nationwide, with some regions having none. We need more accessible graduate programs, scholarships, flexible pathways for qualified educators and human-service professionals, and a deliberate national campaign presenting guidance counseling as a serious career. Somewhere among our teachers, psychology graduates, youth workers, and formators are excellent future counselors. They cannot enter a professional pathway that does not exist within reasonable reach.

Meanwhile, children cannot wait 10 or 14 years for the pipeline to improve. This is where School Counselor Associates under the newer framework can make an enormous difference. They can strengthen mental health promotion, learner profiling, PFA, early identification, referral, and other frontline support. Class and club advisers, subject teachers, and other school staff also remain essential because they are often the first to notice a change: the cheerful child who suddenly goes quiet, the consistent student whose absences begin piling up, or the teenager who jokes about dying once too often. They do not have to become counselors. But they should know enough to notice, listen, respond appropriately, and refer.

But we should resist one tempting shortcut: An associate is not automatically a substitute for an RGC, just as an RGC is not a substitute for a psychologist or psychiatrist. Screening is not counseling. Psychological first aid is not psychotherapy. Referral is not diagnosis. Each has a place. Confusing their scopes may save plantilla money today and cost a vulnerable child much more tomorrow.

Perhaps we should eventually think in terms of an actual school mental health network. Put counselor associates within reasonable reach of learners, move toward the 1:500 benchmark, increase the supply and compensation of RGCs, and establish clear referral pathways. At minimum, the government should seriously study whether every Schools Division Office should have ready access to a licensed psychologist and whether every region should have a formal, dependable psychiatric referral arrangement. The precise staffing model deserves study; the principle does not. A Grade 8 learner in a remote municipality should not have to depend on luck to reach specialized care.

Recent Philippine research on guidance services adds another useful reminder. Rabanal and Valdez (2026) found that students valued not merely the existence of a guidance office but its reliability, responsiveness, confidentiality, professional competence, and personalized care. Their findings suggest that quality is ultimately experienced by the learner: Can I approach you? Will you listen? Can I trust you? Will you know what to do next? That is a better measure than counting how many seminars appeared in an annual accomplishment report.

EDCOM 2 is also right that prevention matters. Schools need early-warning systems because bullying, isolation, family difficulties, and emotional distress are easier to address before they become emergencies. Teachers can notice. Counselor associates can widen the safety net. RGCs can provide professional counseling within their scope. Psychologists and psychiatrists can take cases requiring their expertise. Parents, administrators, and communities complete the circle. No single profession needs to pretend it can do everything.

The 1:500 proposal, then, should be the beginning of a larger conversation rather than its final number. Recruit more people. Train them properly. Pay professionals according to the preparation and responsibility we demand. Expand graduate programs. Fast-track counselor associates without confusing professional boundaries. Build referral networks that actually work.

Because when a frightened student finally gathers enough courage to whisper, “Ma’am, Sir, may problema ako,” the country’s answer cannot be a vacant plantilla item.

Someone should be there.

And that someone should know what to do.

***

Doc H fondly describes himself as a “student of and for life” who, like many others, aspires to a life-giving and why-driven world grounded in social justice and the pursuit of happiness. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions he is employed or connected with.