DepEd pairs school guards with tanods, police in hybrid model
DepEd allocates guards by enrollment, from one per small campus to four plus police patrols on the largest; rollout starts with big schools.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara unveiled a hybrid campus security framework that pairs school guards with barangay tanods and police patrols across public schools nationwide.
The Department of Education (DepEd) model is designed to work around security guard shortages by allocating personnel according to enrollment size and campus needs. DepEd will prioritize assigning guards to high-density campuses and lean on community support for smaller schools.
Under the proposed framework, small campuses with fewer than 500 learners and medium campuses with 501 to 1,000 learners get one security guard each, supported by barangay tanods during peak arrival and dismissal hours and by Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) volunteers for gate duty. Large campuses with 1,001 to 3,300 learners get two guards, with local government or barangay watchmen handling perimeter control and PTA teams managing crowd and traffic. Very large campuses with 3,301 to 8,500 learners, and extremely large campuses with 8,501 learners or more, get four guards reinforced by Philippine National Police (PNP) mobile patrols and local government security officers.
The framework builds on partnerships set in motion through the Department of the Interior and Local Government's Memorandum Circular No. 2026-037 on Safer School Zones. The circular sets the authorized roles and coordination arrangements for barangay tanods in and around school zones. It also recognizes the complementary role of local government units and barangays in school safety, covering perimeter security, traffic and crowd management, monitoring during peak learner movement hours, and immediate reporting of incidents to proper authorities. School officials and other competent agencies keep final authority.
Angara said limited funding means campus security cannot be left to a few guards alone.
"Tulad ng laging paalala ni Pangulong Bongbong Marcos, dapat manatiling ligtas at payapa ang ating mga paaralan bilang mga sentro ng pagkatuto. Alam natin ang limitasyon sa ating pondo, kaya hindi natin pwedeng iasa sa iilang security personnel lamang ang seguridad ng buong kampus."
Secretary Angara said.
He added that the hybrid model enlists communities and other stakeholders to secure a safe and orderly environment for every school.
To reinforce physical security without adding manpower, DepEd is prioritizing investment in surveillance infrastructure, including closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, upgraded area lighting, access control systems, and scanners.
DepEd will roll out the scheme in two phases, starting with schools classified as Large and above before covering small and medium campuses.
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