Angara vows continuous funding of teaching supplies allowance under GAA
By Dhel Nazario
At A Glance
- Senator Sonny Angara has promised that the teaching supplies allowance will continue to be funded as a necessary expense under the General Appropriations Act (GAA).
Angara gave this assurance to the country’s public school teachers.
Previously known as the chalk allowance, the teaching supplies allowance is meant for the purchase of tangible or intangible supplies and materials, the payment of other incidental expenses, and the implementation or conduct of various learning delivery modalities recognized and implemented by the Department of Education (DepEd).
From a mere P700 per year in 2011, the teaching supplies allowance has steadily increased over the years to P1,000 in 2012, P1,500 in 2016, P2,000 in 2017, P3,500 in 2018, and P5,000 from 2021 to the present.
“Since taking over as chairman of the committee on finance in 2019, we have ensured that the teaching supplies allowance is always funded. The P5,000 a year that is currently being received by our teachers was already provided in 2021 even though the new law that will increase the amount was still in the pipeline,” Angara said.
In 2010, the budget needed for the P700 per year chalk allowance for 557,453 teachers was only P392 million.
Over time, the number of teachers has increased and the requirements for teaching has also gone up, including the cost of teaching supplies.
In 2015, the appropriations hit the P1-billion mark when the chalk allowance was hiked to P1,500 a year and the number of teachers went up to 681,024.
Ever since 2021 when the amount was increased further to P5,000, Congress has been appropriating over P4 billion annually for the allowance.
In 2021, the total number of public school teachers was at 886,830. Today, there are already 965,082.
Angara is one of the authors of Senate Bill (SB) No. 1964 or the Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act, which seeks to institutionalize the grant of teaching supplies allowances to public school teachers.
The Senate and House of Representatives have ratified the bicameral conference committee report on the bill, which is now with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for his review and signing.
Once enacted, the Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act mandates the increase in the teaching supplies allowance to P10,000 a year.