House Deputy Majority Leader Quezon City 5th district Rep. PM Vargas has highlighted his twin pro--teacher measures ahead of the annual celebration of National Teachers' Day on Oct. 5

Vargas identified these measures as the Distant Public School Teachers Incentive Bill and the Plantilla Positions for Volunteer Teachers Bill.

The former seeks to provide monthly allowances to teachers assigned in far-flung or remote schools, at the author recognizes the hardships of travel, isolation and resource scarcity.

Meanwhile, the latter aims to create a permanent plantilla position for volunteer teachers who have served at least five continuous years, provided they meet qualifications and civil service requirements. This will give them stability, a regular salary, and benefits.

“Learning outcomes are a function of resources and facilities. When teaching personnel are short and employment is not just a bureaucratic concern, they affect students, communities, and the morale of our teachers," Vargas said.

The ranking solon also called it a "failure of policy and gratitude" that the country lost "over 30,000 teaching-related personnel in a year or when volunteer teachers remain on the margins despite years of service".

Between 2022 and 2023, the number of public school personnel in the country fell by around 38,000 teachers, including teaching-related, and non-teaching staff.

Meanwhile, the Department of Education (DepEd) reported that for the current school year, more than 150,000 teaching positions remain either unfilled or temporarily covered by volunteers and contractual hires.

Vargas said the proposed measures are designed to help fill the teacher vacancies by encouraging movement to remote areas (through incentives); normalizing and regularizing the status of veteran volunteer teachers so that commitment yields security, not precarity; and improving student-teacher ratios and the overall quality of education in underserved communities.

For National Teachers’ Day, Vargas prodded his fellow legislators, the DepEd, and concerned agencies to support policies that put teachers at the heart of education reform.

“Our country may be faced with current anomalies, but this should not deter us from addressing perennial concerns that have stagnated the country’s growth, such as its poor learning outcomes,” said the Quezon City legislator.