When the Bell Rings: A Loud Silence in Every Classroom

When the bell rings, there comes a distinct figure of a person who gives a signal to students to stay in their place and stop talking. There goes the lesson plan, a box of chalk, and a sleeve with a laptop inside—from there, everyone knows that their day as students officially starts. 

Behind that familiar routine is a person whose sleep probably didn’t even stretch to six hours just to finish the lesson plan and the materials needed for a long day in a four-walled room where countless dreams fly. Teachers, after all, carry more than just their heavy laptops and thick folders—they carry the weight of the responsibility they vowed to fulfill—to teach, to guide, and to remind the students not to let dreams be just dreams. 

Yet, in a country where being an educator is labeled mediocre, where people often take advantage of their patience and only remember their worth when it’s October, being a teacher seems to be scary. Not because handling children is like biting bullets, but because it feels like they let the bullet that the government fires them by bearing the cost they even have to pay in return for the service they give. 

The Bell Rings for Silent Sacrifices 

Managing to teach hundreds of students every day—across all classes, subjects, and grade levels- should already be an effort worthy of recognition. Yet, teachers are still expected to provide materials that come from their own pockets…even when their salaries barely cover their bills. Being an educator who works for the government in our country means saving every peso they can for their students.  Although their job description doesn’t state the need to buy chalk, bond paper, and classroom decorations, teachers still stretch their pockets to do so—because the budget for the sector doesn’t even provide for those materials.

As of January 2025, the second tranche of the Salary Standardization Law VI (Executive Order No. 64) has already taken effect, raising the monthly salary of Teacher I from ₱28,512 in the first tranche (2024) to ₱30,024 in the second tranche (2025). Yet, the question here is, would a 5.3% increase be enough for a country with an expanding inflation rate? The amount of increase might be seen as a miracle—but in reality, that little amount is just a façade, seems only to offset the unresolved rise of the inflation rate. 

When one’s passion no longer pays loans and bills at the cost of being underpaid and overworked, teachers are left with no choice but to leave. And this problem doesn’t only affect teachers themselves—the learning of the children, the growth of the youth, and the nation’s future are also at stake. The gradual decrease of public school teachers isn’t just solely because of exhaustion or a change of heart—it is rooted in unresolved issues like underpayment, unimproved facilities, and a reflection of a failed leadership in handling the sector. 

The Bell Rings for a Bleeding System

While teachers face daily battles against exhaustion due to overwork, the education sector itself, in the bigger picture, is crying for help—it’s bleeding. 

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) approved at least 16,000 new teaching positions before the school year 2025-2026 started. However, the Department of Education (DepEd) still reported a shortage of 2,000 teachers nationwide, keeping the gap at approximately 30,000 unfilled positions since 2022, the same year that Vice President Sara Duterte took office as the Education Secretary. 

The Commission on Audit (COA) revealed that from 1,016,066 public school personnel in 2022, the number dropped to 977,603 in 2023, an alarming loss of 38,000 teaching and non-teaching personnel under the administration. 

Not only that, but during VP Sara’s term as the DepEd Secretary, a reported classroom backlog ballooned from roughly 91,000 to 159,000, yet only 3% of the new classrooms targeted in 2023 were completed, only 192 out of 6,379. Her term from 2022 to 2025, before she resigned from the education sector, mirrors how the education system in the country has been stretched too thin and plagued by long-standing issues.

The Bell Rings for Hearts That Teach

Many teachers have left their beloved classrooms not because they lost their passion, but because they also have responsibilities to themselves and their families. They never stopped caring for the children—it’s just that, they also need to be taken care of…and the government keeps on failing them. 

Every teacher deserves better. They have done and fought for their rights for so long. And it is now the country’s turn to meet them halfway. The system must change, not only for those who remain in classrooms, but for those who were forced to leave the place where their purpose was born. 

And so, when the bell rings again tomorrow, may it no longer be a signal of a routine that drains them, but the beginning of a long-overdue change—a promise that those who shape every profession’s future will finally gain the recognition they deserve. Because the hope of our nation begins where that bell first rings.

Article: Ma. Deborah Chelsey C. Bautista

Graphics: Aldreich Pascual