SENATOR Win Gatchalian pushed anew his proposal to raise the entry-level salaries of teachers to boost their morale and uphold their welfare.
During the launch of Brigada Eskwela, it was revealed that President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. ordered the Department of Education (DepEd) to study a long-term approach on how to increase the salaries of both teachers and non-teaching personnel, on top of the wage hike under the Salary Standardization Law.
“Mahalagang hakbang na maitaas ang sahod ng ating mga guro upang mapanatiling mataas ang kanilang morale at mahikayat ang ating mga kabataan na kumuha ng kurso sa pagtuturo,” said Gatchalian, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Basic Education.
Senate Bill No. 149 or the Teacher Salary Increase Act topped Gatchalian’s priority bills under the 19th Congress. Under the proposed measure, Gatchalian seeks to raise the salary grades (SG) of Teacher I from SG 11 (P27,000) to SG 13 (P31,320). He also proposed to raise the salary of Teacher II from SG 12 (P29,165) to SG 14 (P33,843), and the salary of Teacher III from SG 13 (P31,320) to SG 15 (P36,619).
“As our public school teachers find themselves at the forefront of national development, they should be accorded appropriate recognition and adequate compensation by the government,” said Gatchalian in the bill’s explanatory note.
Gatchalian previously lamented that compared to their peers in Southeast Asia, Filipino teachers were already left behind. In Indonesia and Singapore, for example, teacher salaries are approximately P66,099 and P60,419, respectively.
Last year, when he presented the findings of a Senate basic education panel’s review on the implementation of the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers (Republic Act No. 4670), Gatchalian pressed that raising teachers’ salaries should be a priority for the incoming 19th Congress. Gatchalian added that decongesting teachers’ workload and ensuring adequate health insurance should also be prioritized.
The lawmaker also plans to seek amendments to the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers and make it more responsive to present-day challenges hounding public school teachers.
