Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has filed a measure seeking to strengthen the delivery of mental health services in basic education schools in the Philippines.
Gatchalian filed Senate Bill (SB) No. 379 or the Basic Education Mental Health and Well-Being Promotion Act in hopes of immediately countering the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental health and socio-emotional development of students, teachers, and other non-teaching personnel.
The measure also aims to institutionalize the Mental Health and Well-Being Program, which will provide mental health services and other emotional and developmental programs in all public and private basic education schools in the country, Gatchalian's office added.
Meanwhile, the lawmaker also pushed for a sufficient number of plantilla positions to address the shortage of guidance counselors in the country.
He also proposed to raise the salary grades (SG) of Guidance Counselor I from SG 11 (P25,439) to SG 16 (P38,150); Guidance Counselor II from SG 12 (P27,608) to SG 17 (P41,508); and Guidance Counselor III from SG 13 (P29,798) to SG 18 (P45,203).
Although the Department of Education (DepEd) requires basic education schools to hire one guidance counselor for every 500 students, Gatchalian said there are only 4,069 guidance counselors as of June 2022. This means that the desired guidance counselor to students ratio of 1:500 is not being met.