Teachers call for free medical exam

A teachers group yesterday batted for the implementation of free and compulsory medical examination for public school teachers amid the crucial time of pamdemic.

The Teachers Dignity Coalition (TDC) decried that the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers (RA 4670) which calls for free and compulsory medical examination, treatment and hospitalization, and compensation for injuries has yet to be implemented.

Benjo Basas, TDC national chairperson, lamented the fact that the said provisions have not been implemented “until this very day when the teachers need it most.”

However, the group sees the light in the impending Senate inquiry on the implementation of the 1966 vintage Magna Carta for Public School Teachers (RA 4670), a law which has long been neglected by the government.

Basas said the law is a very important piece of legislation since it is considered as the bible of Filipino teachers and lists several provisions that ensure the rights, welfare and dignity of the country’s public mentors.

Such provisions, Basas pointed out, have not been implemented since the 1960s, and many still are selectively and partly enforced.

He cited an incident in another senate committee hearing last year where several proposals for teachers’ salaries were tackled and the Budget Department stated its opposition to P10,000 across-the-board increase.

The DBM listed special hardship allowance, teaching overload or overtime pay, and the one salary grade higher upon retirement among other benefits that are exclusively given to public school teachers.

They must be informed that our teachers do not enjoy the honoraria for teaching overload or the overtime pay as stipulated in the Magna Carta. There is indeed a special hardship allowance, but it is implemented incorrectly as it is based only on a mere DBM circular which says that the maximum amount shall not exceed 25 percent of a teacher’s monthly salary contrary to the mandate of the Magna Carta.