As the end of the school year for 2023-2024 approaches, the Teachers Dignity Coalition (TDC) once again calls on President Bongbong Marcos to fulfill his promise of increasing the salaries of public school teachers.

“The school year is almost over, but the pay increase anticipated for 2024 has yet to materialize. It’s a small amount, but the governments action is taking so long,” said Benjo Basas, the TDC national chairperson.

Basas is referring to the supposed salary adjustment for fiscal year 2024, as confirmed by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) last year and assured earlier this month. DBM officials, during a meeting with TDC leaders last October, hinted at a budgetary allocation of more than 16 billion pesos for government employees, including teachers, but the amount would only range from 2 to 8% of the current salaries.

“This fiscal year 2024 is the second year that the Marcos administration has planned the national budget, but there is still no clear plan to raise teacher and other employee salaries. It appears to fall far short of the promises he made during the previous election campaign, Basas added.

During the campaign for the presidency in 2022, Marcos stated that if he wins, he will augment the salaries of teachers and provide free training for them and scholarship grants for their children.

“We need to provide our teachers with all the necessary support because they are the ones molding our young students to become better, responsible, and productive citizens who, in turn, would become the country’s future leaders,” Marcos said two years ago.

Besides this promise, Basas also recalled Marcos filing bills that would upgrade the salaries of public school teachers from salary grade 11 to 15 under the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) in the 15th and 16th Congresses. The nominal value of this grade is currently P36,616.

“Now that he is the most powerful person in the country, he can expedite the enactment of a substantial increase in our public school teachers’ salaries. He could choose a bill and certify it as urgent,” Basas suggested.

The TDC has been advocating for the upgrading of teachers’ entry-level salaries to at least salary grade 15 or the enactment of the P15,000 across-the-board increase for teachers, or any other increase that would significantly enhance the living conditions of teachers and their families. The group argued that the existing salary scheme, the Salary Standardization Law (SSL), since 1989 has failed to fairly compensate public mentors, especially those in lower positions. The said law places teachers at salary grade 11, the lowest among government professionals. Basas said that his group is currently working with some legislators to draft bills for a teachers’ compensation package that aligns teachers’ salaries with the standards outlined in the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers (RA 4670) rather than the SSL.

The TDC calls on Marcos, as well as Vice President and DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte, to honor their commitments and deliver on their promises. According to Basas, the group is open to having a dialogue with the president so that he can hear the teachers’ sentiments directly.

“If he has time for us, and if he wants to prove that teachers and the education sector are among his priorities, as he stated during the campaign period, he should talk to the teachers and fulfill his promise,” Basas concluded. #

Reference:
Benjo Basas, Chairperson
09273356375

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