Tutors urged PBBM pay hike, education reforms

July 23, 2022 Provincial

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Teacher-member groups of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT)- Philippines have submitted to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s demands for salary upgrading and education reforms. Signed by more than 200 organizations of teaching and non-teaching personnel, the demands were submitted to the President A few days before delivering his first State of the Nation Address (SONA), ACT said, “We agree with the recent Pulse Asia survey commissioned by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian that half of Filipinos believe public school teachers are not paid enough for the job they do.
This is also the reason why many teachers take on odd jobs just to make ends meet. Some teachers go into online selling while others work part-time as Grab, Lalamove, or Angkas drivers. Others still work in call centers at night to augment the meager salaries they receive as teachers,” ACT chairperson Vladimer Quetua said.
“That is why we find the overkill security preparations for the SONA a waste of public funds. More than 21,000 police forces, not counting soldiers and other force multipliers, will be mobilized to prevent protest actions that will only air the just demands of the people in the face of the economic crisis we are enduring,” Quetua blurted out.
“The millions or even billions of pesos being spent for the SONA preparations could have been used to increase the salaries of teachers or used to ensure a safe back-to-school program,” the ACT chairperson said. Their letter to the president contains ten (10) point measures to ensure education recovery as well salaries and welfare upgrades for teachers and education workers: 1. Double the education budget to
fulfill the United Nation’s standard of allocating an education budget equivalent to six percent of the country’s gross domestic product; 2. Fulfill the requirements for the safe conduct of face-to-face classes in 100% of schools nationwide.
Hire a sufficient number of teachers to effectively cut down the class size. Build the necessary facilities and install sufficient health measures; 3. Conduct student assessments nationwide to determine the nature and extent of the learning crisis, as well as design and implement an
evidence-based education recovery program; 4. Provide sufficient and quality teaching and learning resources such as gadgets, textbooks, modules, internet allowance, etc. 5. Overhaul the K-12 program. Reinstate Philippine History in the high school curriculum, with stress on factual Martial Law education to counter historical distortion.
Restore Filipino and Philippine Literature in the tertiary curriculum; 6. Upgrade the salary level of teachers and education support personnel: Salary Grade 15 for Teacher I; Salary Grade 16 for Instructor I; and P16,000 monthly salary for Salary Grade I employees; 7. Hire a sufficient number of education support personnel to unload teachers of burdensome administrative duties and enable them to focus on instruction; 8. Improve the benefits of education workers: compensate the 77 excess workdays of public school teachers in SY 2020-2021; grant 15 days sick leave for public school teachers; grant P3,000 inflation adjustment allowance for all government employees; lower the optional retirement age of government workers to 56 year old; expand and improve benefits for GSIS and SSS members; 9. Enact the Magna Carta for Private School Teachers; and 10. Ensure the enjoyment of academic freedom of all teachers and institutions, and full union rights of education workers.
Quetua hopes Pres. Marcos Jr. and concurrent education chief and VP Sara Duterte-Carpio “would study and implement these measures to address the many issues confronting the education sector and we are open to discuss these with them.”
Artemio A. Dumlao/ABN