The Department of Education (DepEd) said it will use its record budget for 2026 to crack down on so-called “ghost students,” following the signing of the P6.793-trillion national budget by Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara said DepEd received its largest allocation in recent years at P1.015 trillion, inclusive of Retirement and Life Insurance Premiums for the department and its attached agencies.

Angara said the funding will support programs that directly benefit learners and teachers, including classroom construction, school-based feeding programs, textbooks, learner subsidies, laptops for teachers and students, the hiring of additional teaching and non-teaching personnel, and continuous training for teachers and school heads.

A key focus of the expanded budget, Angara said, is addressing the long-standing issue of “ghost students,” referring to learners who are listed as enrolled but do not attend classes or are registered in multiple schools.

He said DepEd has tightened verification measures by rigorously validating learner enrollment, checking learner reference numbers, and implementing stronger safeguards to prevent data manipulation.

Angara noted that enrollment databases are now being cross-checked — an approach that was not done in the past — to ensure the accuracy and integrity of learner records.

Alongside efforts to clean up enrollment data, DepEd has also revised its classroom construction system after observing declining efficiency among implementing agencies. For the first time, classroom construction will no longer be limited to the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Under new flexibility provisions in the General Appropriations Act (GAA), DepEd and local government units (LGUs) are now authorized to construct classrooms directly. Angara said the department expects most of the projected 20,000-plus classrooms to be built by LGUs, which have been allocated funds to construct around 5,000 to 6,000 classrooms.

He added that DepEd completed 8,900 classrooms in 2022, 2,900 in 2023, 3,500 in 2024, and 4,700 in 2025.

On staffing concerns, Angara said the department is prepared to meet demand, citing a large pool of qualified passers of the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) ready for hiring.