THE chairman of the House Committee on Revision of Laws is seeking to raise the monthly minimum wage of teachers in all public elementary and secondary schools to P25,000 and nonteaching personnel to P15,000.
House Bill (HB) 5402, authored by Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Marlyn L. Primicias-Agabas of Pangasinan, chairman of the committee, seeks to attract and retain the best available talents through adequate remuneration.
Under HB 5402, the present minimum salaries of teachers in public elementary and secondary schools should be upgraded from P18,549 to P25,000 a month and the salaries of those occupying higher positions shall be adjusted accordingly.
The bill also raises the present minimum salaries of nonteaching personnel in the public elementary and secondary schools from P9,000 to P15,000 a month and the salaries of those occupying higher positions shall be adjusted accordingly.
Covered by the measure are teaching and nonteaching personnel in all public elementary and secondary schools, including those in technical and vocational schools, and state universities and colleges, the measure said.
The bill also provides that the government shall appropriate such amount as may be necessary to carry out the objectives of the Act, and that the salary increase of teaching and nonteaching personnel in public schools shall take priority over non-educational and nonagricultural budgetary allocations.
The amount necessary to implement the provisions of the Act shall be included in the budget of the Department of Education in the annual General Appropriations Act, it added.
In filing the bill, Primicias-Agabas said it is an understatement to say that teachers are the most exhausted, abused and taken advantage of among the country’s public servants.
“Teachers are considered as the second parents of our children. They are tasked to teach classroom lessons and even mold the values of our youth. Aside from their teaching responsibilities, they also perform other duties that the state would delegate them to do. And with their massive work, compensation is not enough,” Primicias-Agabas said.
She added that the inadequate compensation drives the best of the country’s educators to look for better employment outside academe and some outside the country. “And that leaves our children without the best educators that they could have.”