Wage increase for schoolteachers proposed Print Email Details Category: Learning Published on Sunday, 05 May 2013 17:22 Written by Leony R. Garcia THE current salaries of public-school teachers do not compare favorably with other occupations in government. Their salaries are unable to ensure a reasonable standard of life for themselves and their families. Rep. Antonio Tinio of Alliance of School Teachers (ACT) Party-list said, “A duly licensed professional teacher occupying the entry-level position of Teacher 1, with a monthly salary of P15,649, earns substantially less than a high-school graduate who enters the Philippine Military Academy as a cadet, with a monthly stipend of P21,709,” Tinio noted. He said neither does teachers’ pay compare favorably with those employed as call-center agents in the private sector. The salary for call-center employment, which requires neither formal education nor a bachelor’s degree, ranges from P12,500 to P20,000 a month. To motivate and maintain highly qualified teachers in the country, the ACT solon vowed to pursue his proposal to upgrade the minimum salaries of both elementary and high-school teachers from Salary Grade 11 to Level 15. House Bill 2142, authored by Tinio himself, which was referred to stakeholders by the Committee on Appropriations on September 20, 2010, for consideration and comment, would best be taken up early by the incoming 16th Congress. In 2010 the ACT Party-list said the family living wage in the National Capital Region was estimated at P957 per day or more than P21,054 per month, in sharp contrast to the P15,649 monthly salary of a Teacher 1. Tinio said the situation is pushing the most qualified teachers out of the country to seek better pay and working conditions. While an entry-level Teacher 1 receives a P203,437 annual pay, Filipino teachers in the United States receive annual salaries ranging from P1.5 million to P2.1 million. “In order to cope with this ‘living salary gap,’ teachers resort to borrowing and are heavily indebted to government financial institutions such as the GSIS, private lending entities, or even loan sharks,” Tinio said. The efforts of the government to upgrade the educational system cannot succeed for as long as teachers are taken for granted, he said. Under a Joint Resolution of Congress 4 on July 28, 2008, the modified Salary Schedule for Civilian Personnel, to be implemented in tranches, shows that Salary Grade 11 ranges from P18,549 (Step 1) to P19,887 (Step 8) and Salary Grade 15 ranges from P24,887 (Step 1) to P26,868 (Step 8). Among other provisions stated in the joint resolution is that an employee may progress from Step 1 to Step 8 of the salary grade allocation of his/her position in recognition of meritorious performance based on a Performance Management System approved by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and/or through length of service, in accordance with the rules and regulations to be promulgated jointly by the Department of Budget and Management and the CSC. Meanwhile, Rep. Edgardo “Sonny” Angara is supporting an increase in the salaries of private-school teachers to make these at par with those being received in public elementary and secondary schools. Angara is chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Higher and Technical Education. Angara was the author of the law that effectively raised the minimum wage for public-school teachers (Teacher l) from P14,000 to P18,000 a month. Private-school teachers in the same position are earning only at least P8,000 a month. Angara said private-school teachers also deserved a much higher pay because they are engaged in the same noble vocation of helping mold the character of students. He said the government should address the distortion to stop the exodus of private-school teachers to public-schools due to better pay and higher benefits from the government. “We have received numerous complaints from private schools that many of their teachers now want to pursue their career in public schools because of this wage increase,” said Angara. Leony R.Garcia
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 07:18:56 +0000
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