HOTSPOT

How about some great news for public school teachers nationwide?

The government’s so-called “chalk allowance,” an annual cash aid intended to help teachers in getting teaching supplies, will soon be increased to P10,000 under the newly-enacted “Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act,” principally authored by ACT Teachers Representatives Antonio Tinio and France Castro.

Rep. Castro has shared on X (formerly Twitter) a copy of a May 30, 2024 letter addressed to her from the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office inviting her to the President’s ceremonial signing of the measure on June 3, 2024 at Malacanan Palace.

Prior to this, Reps. Castro and Tinio started a countdown to the possible lapsing into law of the approved bill as transmitted to the President by Congress.

Regardless of our politics, we should thank the President and Congress for enacting the ACT Teachers’ “Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act.” Helping our teachers is good, healthy and positive common ground.

Before there was a “chalk allowance,” teaching materials are a huge out-of-pocket expense for public school teachers, as if they were charitable foundations or multimillionaires. Considering the big class sizes in public schools, as well as the big teaching loads, the importance and cost of teaching materials are left to teachers to bear.

We children of public school teachers know this first hand. Our parents buy school supplies not just for us, but for also their classes.

Since entering Congress through the partylist system, ACT Teachers has been consistent in asking for increases of the “chalk allowance.” In 2011, Rep. Tinio filed House Bill 4134 seeking to raise it from P700 at the time, to a more realistic P2,000. This is apart from other bills that seek to raise the entry-level salary for public school teachers, which is something that the government should look into, if it is serious in addressing the situation of the public education sector.

As such, the President should certify as urgent the passage of House Bill 9920, which seeks to raise from P27,000 to P50,000 the entry-level salary for public school teachers.

Castro and fellow lawmakers Arlene Brosas of Gabriela and Raoul Manuel of Kabataan have argued that the increase merely aim to keep salaries “at pace with the cost of living,” and that the proposal pales in comparison with the bigger, more generous increases to the police and military under the previous administration.

“Even after the last tranche of Salary Standardization Law V, the frontliners in education will still be no better off than the police and soldiers in uniform, whose salaries the Duterte administration increased by 50 percent to 100 percent,” they said in the bill’s explanatory note.

“They might not bear arms, but they are professionals with qualifications higher than police and soldiers. Teachers cannot enter and remain in the service without the training and fortitude required of the daily and myriad battles in public education—And it must never be alleged that their qualifications, training, and fortitude are less than those of the police and military,” they added.

The government, both national and local, also have a list of multiple tasks handed down to public school teachers. Perhaps the biggest, most tiring, and most dangerous is the handling of the elections at the precinct level, for which they often belatedly receive paltry allowances.

The proposal, of course, would require funds sources and revenue. But this was not a problem when the police and military were given their big salary increases. Also not a problem with other expensive appropriations, including the billions in non-productive confidential and intelligence funds.

If they manage to see this through, it would be a landmark achievement for the President. Raising the salaries of public school teachers would be a defining moment, and set it apart from the previous administration.

Hopefully Congress and the President would make raising the entry-level salary of public school teachers an administration priority, and tell economic managers to do everything in their power to find the needed fund sources and revenue. The President could do it as early as July this year, in his State of the Nation Address and the submission of the proposed 2025 national budget. It is not impossible. Nothing is impossible if the government wants it done.