NEWS RELEASE December 09, 2014 TEACHERS SAY TYPHOONS FASTER THAN BONUSES The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) again slams the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Budget and Management for another delay in a bonus that supposedly given by the end of year 2013. The performance-based bonus (PBB) is part of the productivity based-incentive system (PBIS) under the Salary Standardization Law-3 enacted in 2009 and implemented since year 2012 under the Executive Order No. 80 signed by Pres. Noynoy Aquino. The other incentive is the productivity enhancement incentive or PEI amounting to P5, 000.00 and given to all the employees and officials of the government. “This PBB is long been overdue. There were pronouncements in the past that this bonus will be released earlier, yet the DepEd has only come up with the guidelines in July with a projection that the PBB will be released by September to October, 2014.” Said Benjo Basas, a Caloocan City teacher and TDC’s national chairperson. When the DepEd failed to release the PBB in its own target date, it adjusted the date of release to ‘within’ November. After the end of November, there is still no PBB until the first week of December. Since November, two strong typhoons Queenie and Ruby devastated several provinces. Basas, however said his group is not in favor of the PBB scheme under EO 80 and in fact called to scrap the policy and instead provide an across the board incentive which is, according to them is fair and justifiable. “This PBB scheme is unfair and deceptive and would further divide the government employees.” He said. PBB under Executive Order 80 signed by the president in July 2012 is a scheme granting monetary benefits to government employees ranging from 0 to P35, 000.00 based on their ‘performance.’ The teachers however are critical of the scheme because the government specifically the Department of Education (DepEd) has no clear-cut policy on how to measure the teachers’ performance that resulted to incentive disparity and demoralization among the teachers when it was first implemented in school year 2012-2013. Last year’s PBB criteria have become controversial with the DepEd listing the drop-out rate, national achievement test (NAT) performance and the disbursement of school’s funds as the bases of school’s performance, which was also become the basis of individual teacher’s performance. “All of those criteria have nothing to do with the performance of individual teachers, thus putting the majority of us to disadvantage.” Basas explained “Even the promise of a P35, 000 incentive is a deception because it is only limited to 1% of all the employees of the DepEd or the entire bureaucracy.” Basas furthered arguing that those who will be entitled to a maximum incentive should be in the top 10% or the ‘best’ category of employees in an agency which is also rated as ‘best’ or the top 10% of all the agencies or delivery units. “Thus, encourages all the 600, 000 teachers and employees of the DepEd to compete for P35, 000.” The TDC said this is the main reason why some schools have resorted to cheating the NAT to get better result which clearly defeats the purpose both of the NAT and the PBB itself. “The delay of almost a year is a manifestation that the scheme is complicated. This PBB is the only incentive left for us, yet the government makes it very difficult for us to receive this small amount. We were made to wait for almost a year, yet in the end, the different amount given to each school proved to be very unfair. It could further divide us.” Basas continued. There are reports, however that the PBB were already released in several divisions in CALABARZON like in the cities of Dasmarinas and Antipolo and ready for release in some cities in Metro Manila. “Typhoons are much faster than bonuses. Perhaps, this bonus would be used now for repair of teachers’ houses after typhoon Ruby.” Basas ended. #
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 14:54:13 +0000
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