Bill seeks to increase public school teachers’ salary from P18K to P36K

In response to the long-standing criticism that public school teachers in the Philippines are overworked and underpaid, two party-list lawmakers have proposed increasing the minimum salary of educators from an average of P18,500 to at least P36,000.

 

House Bill 4081 filed by Magdalo party-list Representatives Francisco Ashley Acedillo and Gary Alejano seeks to upgrade the salary grade level of teachers in public elementary and secondary schools from the present Salary Grade (SG) 11 to SG 20. 

 

Public school educators currently receive a minimum salary of P18,549 under the third phase of the Salary Standardization Law. 

 

Government employees under SG 20, meanwhile, have a basic monthly rate of P36,567.

 

Under the measure, the upgrade in the teachers’ salary shall be adjusted in accordance with their qualifications and length of service. Their pay, however, shall not be prejudiced by across-the-board adjustments.

 

Acedillo said in the bill’s explanatory note that the proposal aims to give life to the Constitutional provision mandating the State to give the highest budgetary priority to education and ensure adequate remuneration to those in the teaching profession.

 

Paragraph 5 under Section 5 of Article 6 provides that “the State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education and ensure that teaching will attract and retain its rightful share of the best available talents through adequate remuneration and other means of job satisfaction and fulfillment.”

 

But even with this provision, the lawmaker said public school teachers remain inadequately compensated for their hard work.

 

“Despite the fact that they are looked upon and heralded as molders of the youth, public school teachers receive a basic salary under the Salary Standardization Law (SSL3) of P18,549 only,” Acedillo said. 

 

Aside from mandating the national government to allocate the necessary amount to fund the salary increase of educators, the bill also requires the Department of Education (DepEd) to immediately come up with the specific programmed budget needed to cover the expenses for the upgrading in salary levels for all the corresponding teacher plantilla positions over a period of three years.

 

This is to give the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) enough time to make the necessary budgetary adjustments to facilitate the smooth implementation of the proposed Act once it becomes a law.

 

Should HB 4081 be passed into law, the amount intended to fund the salary increase of public school teachers shall be included in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for the year following its enactment.

 

Last year, Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara filed a similar bill seeking to upgrade the salary grade level of public school teachers from SG 11 to SG 19. 

 

Educators in the public school system stand to receive a basic monthly pay of P33,859 should Senate Bill 61 become a law. —Xianne Arcangel/KG, GMA News