Half of Filipinos think public school teachers are underpaid —Pulse Asia

Half of Filipinos believe that public school teachers are not paid enough, according to the results of a recently commissioned Pulse Asia survey.

According to the Ulat ng Bayan survey, 50% of Filipinos believe that public school teachers are underpaid, 37% believe the teachers have enough salary, 3% believe they are overpaid, and 10% are undecided.
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The survey, commissioned by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, was conducted from June 24 to June 27 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 Filipino adults nationwide.

It has an error margin of ±2.8% for national percentages and ±5.7% for the National Capital Region, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

The results of the survey also showed that among those who answered teachers are underpaid, 57% belonged to the ABC classes, 53% to the E class, and 48% belonged to the D class.

Meanwhile, 8% of those who believe that public school teachers are overpaid belong to the ABC class, 2% from the D class, and 4% from the E class.

SB 149

According to Gatchalian, who will chair the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts, and Culture in the 19th Congress, Filipino public school teachers are being left by their counterparts in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

He cited Indonesia where the entry-level pay of teachers is around P66,000 compared to the P25,000 entry-level pay of teachers in the Philippines.

Due to this, Gatchalian is pushing to raise the Salary Grade of Teacher I from P25,439 to P29,798; Teacher II from P27,608 to P32,321; and Teacher III from P29,798 to P35,097 through Senate Bill No. 149 or the proposed Teacher Salary Increase Act.

“Kung maitataas natin ang kanilang mga sahod, maitataas din natin ang kanilang morale at mahihikayat din natin ang mas maraming mga kabataan na kumuha ng kurso sa pagtuturo,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.

(If we increase the salaries, we will also increase their morale and encourage more youth to want to become teachers.) —KBK, GMA News