Gov’t committed to increase salary of teachers — DepEd
The government is not turning its back on its promise to increase the salary of public school teachers, an official of the Department of Education (DepEd) has said.
The timing for the increase, however, has to be taken into account since there is still a scheduled salary hike next year under the salary standardization order issued by the previous Aquino administration, according to DepEd spokesman and Assistant Secretary Nepomuceno Malaluan.
“The pronouncement of the executive is that we are committed to an increase in the salary, but there is still a one tranche increase that is coming up for the general salary standardization,” Malaluan said Monday night in an interview with The
Chiefs aired on One News, the news channel of Cignal TV.
“Secretary Diokno has committed to commission a study as soon as 2019 comes in. The 2019 fourth tranche kicks in and that’s when they decide on overall increase and comparative increase for the various agencies of government,” he added, referring to Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno.
On the part of the DepEd, he said that they are reviewing the salary of the teachers, noting the significant differences in the rates for teachers and master teachers.
“There might be some salary rationalization that has to be done, but that is still under study,” he said.
“The commitment remains to adjust the salary of the teachers, but probably the timing is something that has (to be considered),” Malaluan added.
In the same program, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) party-list group Rep. Antonio Tinio said salary increase for teachers is an urgent matter that has to be addressed by the government.
He noted that many are overworked due to huge amounts of paperwork on top of their teaching loads.
“As far as we’re concerned, this is urgent, especially in the context of TRAIN and the rise in the cost of living that it has brought,” the lawmaker said, referring to the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law.The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) this week initiated a signature campaign calling for a P10,000 per month across-the-board salary increase for all public school teachers.
“We believe that we deserve better compensation for our teachers would redound to a more effective education delivery and would ensure the proper training of our children to become productive citizens of the future. Unfortunately, the governments misses its obligation to the most important factor of education – the teachers,” he added.
The TDC said they intend to submit the petition on the State of the Nation Address of President Duterte in July.
Meanwhile, public schools throughout the country are lacking nearly 82,000 classrooms, Tinio and France Castro, also of the ACT party-list group, said yesterday.
“The perennial problem of shortage of classrooms and teachers is leading to the alarming increase in the number of outof-school children and youth,” Tinio and Castro, who are both former teachers, said.
A 2016 survey by the Philippine Statistics Authority, according to them, showed that 3.8 million – or one in 10 children aged six to 24 – were not in school.