Teachers are not therapists

Nobody becomes a public school teacher expecting to spend half the week managing acute mental health crises. Yet that is exactly what is happening across Western Visayas right now.

Last year, the government passed Republic Act No. 12080. It is a beautifully titled law — the Basic Education Mental Health and Well-Being Promotion Act – promising a Care Center in every single public school. It sounds fantastic on paper.

Then you walk into a public high school in Region 6 and realize the numbers are entirely detached from reality.

Out of 350 existing high school guidance counselor positions in the region, 306 sit empty. Elementary schools have zero plantilla items. None.

So who picks up the slack when a teenager breaks down, acts out, or shows signs of severe trauma?

The teachers.

Right now, over 2,600 educators and school personnel across our region are doing double duty as designated counselors. Iloilo alone relies on over 1,100 of them. We ask people trained to teach algebra and history to somehow navigate complex psychology in their spare time, right between grading papers and writing lesson plans. This arrangement is wildly unfair to the faculty. More importantly, it is dangerous for the children.

Somehow, the bureaucracy is making it worse. The Department of Education is currently realigning its ranks to fit this new mental health law – specifically creating a new School Counselor Associate position. Because of this, the filling of existing vacancies is temporarily suspended. We have a massive crisis on our hands. Yet our local education office remains stuck waiting for a memo from Manila before they can even try to hire anyone. A student in distress does not have the luxury of waiting for the Central Office to figure out its paperwork.

But even if the hiring freeze lifts tomorrow, we are still ignoring a massive structural flaw in the system.

Under the Guidance and Counseling Act of 2004, an applicant needs a master’s degree just to take the licensure exam. That takes years of postgraduate study. What does the government offer these highly qualified, licensed professionals? An entry-level Salary Grade 11 position. That is roughly PHP 27,000 a month.

You simply cannot demand a master’s degree and a professional license, then hand out entry-level government pay. It is no mystery why licensed counselors flee to corporate human resources departments or private clinics. They have bills to pay just like the rest of us.

If we actually want to solve this, we must stop legislating fantasies. The new mandate of one counselor for every 500 students is mathematically impossible under the current pay structure. The government needs to fund its priorities. Congress must upgrade the salary grade to actually reflect the heavy qualifications. Alternatively, the education department must rapidly fast-track the hiring of these new associate roles for psychology graduates who do not yet possess a professional license.

Until we fix the mismatch between what we demand and what we pay, those promised Care Centers will remain empty promises on a piece of paper – while exhausted teachers try to hold the line.