The schools in the Philippines are classified according to the level and type of curriculum. There are three major levels: elementary, secondary and tertiary. Pre-schools like nursery, preparatory and kindergarten are offered, particularly in private schools and day care centres, but are not required to enter primary school.

The curricula and courses are dependent on the school, which are either public or private.

Public Schools

Public schools are composed of all elementary, secondary, university, colleges and other government schools which are subsidised by the national government to provide free education in lower levels and to alleviate the cost of education in higher levels.

Primary, also known as elementary and the secondary schools are under the supervision of the Department of Education (Dep. Ed.), formerly called as Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS). According to Dep. Ed. there are 36,234 public elementary schools and 4,422 public secondary schools in the country in which the government provides free and compulsory education to elementary level and free education to secondary level including the alternative learning for out-of-school youth and adult learners or continuing students. This ordinance is stated in Republic Act No. 9155 of 2001.

Basic education may be free but the facilities and educational supplies like books are not entirely free. Some students opt to share books and other reading materials while others purchased their own. In other areas, students are asked to bring their own arm chairs / arm desks because there is no enough supply. And, students who may require computer and science laboratories may just be contented with a single computer unit or borrowed laboratory apparatuses.

On the other hand, most of the State Universities and Colleges seemingly have reasonable level of facilities to cater the needs of the students. Some SUCs have minimal computer units which are shared among thousands of students. The ratio of utility can vary from one computer to 10 students (1:10) or one to twenty (1:20) that even Computer Science students have to share units with other students.

Among the 110 State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) and 326 satellite campuses (branches) in the country, the University of the Philippines (UP) is the major recipient of the national budget. Intensive researches and integrated education are the main focus of this university which claimed to producing cream of the crop national leaders and lawmakers.

Aside from SUCs, local government units like towns and cities created and funded Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs) or community universities and colleges, to provide more accessible and more affordable higher education to their constituents. Areas which are mostly remote but with enough financial resource may establish and finance a community college. Basing on the record of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) there are currently 70 LUCs in the Philippines.

The SUCs and LUCs compose the integral part of every Filipinos right to education. These government schools are not alone in enhancing human resources in the country. The creation of Other Government Schools (OGS) like public secondary and post-secondary schools for technical and vocational courses also boosts the countries skilled manpower. Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) is one of the 18 OGS which was created in 1994 to encourage the full participation and mobilization of the industry, labor, local government units and technical-vocational institutions in the skills development of the country's human resources.

The government also created Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), another OGS to provide academic degrees and advanced training programs specifically in military science and national defense, to military and defense members of the country. These institutions are created and supervised by the Department of National Defense (DND) and Philippine National Police (PNP).

Furthermore, the Commission on Higher Education, as mandated by law, supervises all higher education institutions including private institutions, and establishes programs in educating the people. One of which is the CHED Supervised Institutions (CSIs), a non-chartered public post-secondary education which is created and financed by the national government. These 102 CSIs are mainly concentrated in Mindanao regions to integrate specific courses with existing state universities.

Private Schools

Private schools are established and governed by the Corporation Code, which are classified into two: the sectarian and the non-sectarian private schools.

The sectarian schools are non-stock, non-profit and are usually owned by religious organizations particularly the Catholic and Protestant denominations. There are 288 sectarian higher education schools out of 1,118 sectarian institutions in the country. The other 830 private schools are non-sectarian, which are incorporated and operated by private individuals or corporations including memorial or foundation schools, language schools and international schools.

There are 4,800 private elementary schools, 3,377 private secondary schools and 2, 036 higher education institutions in the country as of 2007. These schools do not receive any government financial assistance except certain subsidised programs like government funded scholarships. And though private, these schools abide the policies, standards and guidelines set by the Department of Education for elementary and secondary levels and Commission on Higher Education for universities and colleges.

In 2007, the Commission on Higher Education granted autonomous or deregulated status to 34 private universities and colleges for their exemplary performance in education, research and extension services.

Below is the list of all public and private higher education institutions in the country.

Distribution of Higher Education Institutions by Region and Sector
Academic Year 2006-2007

Source: Commission on Higher Education, 17 December 2007