House urged to pass Senate-approved bill doubling teachers’ pay

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 3, 2008) - The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has urged the House of Representatives to promptly pass the Senate-approved bill seeking to increase by P9,000 or double the minimum basic pay for the country's public school teachers.

"House leaders should now stop paying lip service to the plight of our more than 500,000 public school teachers, and waste no time in passing the bill that the Senate already approved two months ago," TUCP secretary-general and former Senator Ernesto Herrera, said in a statement.

Herrera was referring to Senate Bill (SB) 2408, principally authored by Sen. Loren Legarda. The bill proposes to raise from Salary Grade 10 to 19 the entry-level pay classification for teachers in public elementary and high schools.

This means their initial monthly pay would be jacked up to a new range of P18,471 to P21,995. The existing range is P10,933 to P12,997.

On top of the preliminary P9,000-increase, public school teachers would also get a P3,000-pay raise every three years.

Once approved, the initial adjustment would likewise automatically set off commensurate pay increases for every teacher in the public school system currently receiving compensation higher than the starting rate.

Herrera stressed the need for Congress "to redeem public school teachers from grinding poverty and restore the nobility of the teaching profession."

He warned that unless the House passes the Senate-approved bill, the public school system would continue to lose thousands of highly qualified instructors forced to seek greener pasture overseas, or here in the private sector.

Herrera noted that English-speaking Filipino teachers continue to leave in droves for overseas employment, particularly for the United States, where they get up to $4,000 monthly.

"Advancing in a big way the quality of life of our teachers and keeping them constantly motivated is the best way for Congress to check and reverse the rapid decline of basic education," Herrera pointed out.

Once SB 2408 is enacted, the first-year pay for public school teachers would be almost 25 percent higher than the P15,000 average starting pay for their counterparts in the private sector.

House Bill 4734, principally authored by Gabriela party-list Rep. Luzviminda Iligan, is the counterpart of SB 2408. Ilagan’s bill has been pending with the House appropriations committee since July 2007.