WHEN historians look back at the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration, one of its most embarrassing chapters will not be measured in pesos stolen or projects abandoned, but in the wasted years of our children’s education under Sara Duterte. Appointed to the Department of Education (DepEd) despite her obvious lack of interest in the portfolio, she has shown herself to be the worst education secretary in our history. That judgment is not merely the opinion of critics.
ACT Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio, a longtime advocate for teachers, has openly declared her the worst education secretary ever. And even the Palace, through spokesman lawyer Claire Castro, could not disguise its exasperation when it admitted that she was a failure as secretary.
This is not a statement born of partisanship. It is borne out of evidence: hollow policies, misused funds, demoralized teachers and no vision for education. Every secretary before her, however flawed, at least attempted to grapple with the enormous responsibility of leading the largest bureaucracy in government. Sara Duterte, by contrast, treated DepEd as a political platform and war chest.
The tragedy began with her obvious lack of enthusiasm for the post. Everyone knew she had her eyes on the Department of National Defense, not education. She telegraphed her disinterest from day one, taking DepEd as an unwanted assignment. That disinterest translated into lackluster leadership. Education needs passion. Instead, the department got neglected. While past secretaries immersed themselves in curriculum reform, teacher training or access issues, Duterte was often away, attending political events and foreign trips unrelated to education. The top priority, it seemed, was not classrooms but her own political brand.
The defining mark of her tenure will always be the brazen attempt to justify confidential funds for DepEd. No secretary ever asked for millions in surveillance funds, as if schools were military targets. It was an insult to the sector. At a time when classrooms were literally collapsing, when children studied under leaking roofs, she demanded P150 million in confidential funds. This scandal revealed her priorities: not learning recovery, not fixing shortages, but weaponizing education funds for purposes best left to the imagination. The backlash forced a reallocation, but the damage was done. Trust vanished.
The Covid-19 pandemic left the Philippines with one of the worst learning poverty rates in the world. International assessments confirmed it: Filipino students ranked at the bottom in reading, mathematics and science. Any education secretary worthy of the role would have declared a learning recovery crusade, mobilizing resources to catch up an entire generation. Instead, Duterte’s initiatives were cosmetic. The Matatag curriculum rollout was rushed, shallow and lacked teacher preparation. She declared it a “milestone,” but teachers saw it as a shallow, press-driven reform.
Even worse, she never once articulated a coherent strategy to address learning loss. No major investment in teacher retraining. No bold innovation in technology integration. No national tutoring programs. Other countries raced to rebuild; the Philippines stood still, paralyzed by a secretary with neither the vision nor the will.
Teachers are the backbone of DepEd, but under Duterte, they became its most demoralized constituency. She often spoke down to them, once notoriously telling critics to “resign” if they were unhappy. Instead of empathizing with overworked, underpaid educators, she dismissed their grievances. The backlog in teaching supplies, the bureaucratic overload of paperwork and the low salaries remained unaddressed. Worse, her department continued to float vague threats of surveillance against “insurgency-linked” teachers, creating fear instead of support.
Recruitment into the profession has plummeted. More graduates avoid teaching because they see no future in it. That is Duterte’s legacy: the collapse of morale among teachers.
Every time DepEd failed, seen in shortages of classrooms, chairs or salary delays, Duterte deflected. She blamed Congress, past administrations, even parents. Rarely did she assume responsibility. Contrast this with Jesse Robredo in the Department of the Interior and Local Government, or Armin Luistro in DepEd, leaders who, right or wrong, owned the burden of leadership. Duterte, by comparison, perfected the politics of excuses.
Her defenders claim she inherited a broken system, which is true. But every secretary does. The job is precisely to wrestle with those broken parts, not to shrug and pass the blame. By hiding behind problems and offering no solutions, confirming her unfitness.
In truth, Duterte’s heart was never in education. The portfolio was merely a political placeholder until 2028. Every action she took, or failed to take, must be seen in that light. The confidential funds demand was about political machinery. Her absences were campaign prep. Even Matatag branding was mere sloganeering. DepEd became an extension of her political campaign.
The cost is staggering. Millions cannot read at grade level; dropout rates high; competitiveness lagging; teachers leaving for abroad. And yet, she could still jet around, pick fights and plan her electoral arithmetic.
Sometimes bad leadership is worse than none. Sara Duterte embodies this. Doing nothing would have been better. Her tenure harmed DepEd: diverting funds, distracting priorities, draining morale. She left DepEd unreformed, scarred by scandal and cynicism.
When her resignation finally came, it was not out of humility but calculation, jumping ship before accountability could be fully demanded. She left a mess, spreading blame to escape accountability. For the millions of students consigned to overcrowded classrooms and irrelevant curricula, however, the consequences are lifelong.
Sara Duterte will be remembered as the worst education secretary ever. Not just for failing to solve old problems, but for introducing new ones: weaponized funds, politicized DepEd, demoralized teachers. She presided over the greatest learning crisis of our era and chose self-interest over national duty. Tinio and Castro may have spoken bluntly, but their verdict only echoes the public’s own conclusion.
If there is one lesson to draw, it is that education cannot be entrusted to incompetent politicians. Our children’s future deserves leaders who see classrooms as sacred spaces where the nation’s destiny is shaped. The Duterte years in DepEd must be a cautionary tale: never again should the future of Filipino children be sacrificed to mediocrity.
Disclosure: Aside from being a professor at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, I am also the vice chairman of the board of state-run PTV Network Inc.
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