MANILA, Philippines — Public school teachers will receive an additional P1,500 allowance this year to assist them in the implementation of distance learning modalities.
The increase of the annual teaching allowance from P3,500 to P5,000 was included in the 2021 budget recently approved by President Duterte, the Department of Education (DepEd) said.
“We would like to thank the President, our senators and representatives for backing our request to increase teachers’ allowance. This is timely support for the education sector and to our teachers in these difficult times,” Education Secretary Leonor Briones said in a statement.
DepEd Undersecretary for finance Annalyn Sevilla said the annual P1,000 allowance to be given on World Teachers’ Day in October was also included in the approved 2021 budget.
Public school teachers, however, would not receive this year the P500 financial assistance for the payment of medical examination expenses.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) pointed out that the approved increase would not be enough to cover the additional expenses of teachers due to the shift to distance learning.
“The additional P1,500 in teaching supplies allowance also includes the P500 for medical allowance. In essence, only an additional P1,000 was allocated for communication or internet allowance for an entire year,” it said in Filipino.
ACT said this translates to only P83 per month, which it said is even lower than the P300 per month budget provided by DepEd last year.
The agency earlier allowed employees to reimburse up to P300 per month in communication expenses from March to December last year.
ACT said teachers spend around P1,500 per month for communication expenses incurred because of distance learning.
Last year, DepEd said it also requested P4 billion from the DBM to support distance learning initiatives, including the provision of load allowance for public school teachers and senior high school students.
Once released, teachers will receive P450 per month while senior high school students will get P250 per month for three months.
There is also a pending measure in Congress that will increase the cash allowance granted to teachers from P3,500 to P10,000 by school year 2024-2025.
Under the proposed law, the annual cash allowance provided to teachers – formerly known as chalk allowance – will be increased in tranches: P5,000 in 2021 and 2022, P7,500 in 2023 and P10,000 in 2024.
The ACT expressed gratitude to senators for approving the measure last November, but said “increasing it to P15,000 immediately is what would really ease the teachers’ heavier financial burdens brought about by the requirements of distance learning.”
Broadband program gets 10% funding
Meanwhile, from its proposed P18-billion fund for the National Broadband Program (NBP) this year, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) was allocated only P1.9 billion or about 10 percent of its needed budget.
“P18 billion for the NBP was proposed. Around P1.9 billion was given,” DICT spokesman Adrian Echaus told The STAR.
Still, the DICT would implement the program “in phases” so as not to affect the timetable in achieving the nationwide layout of the internet infrastructure backbone, he said.
While the P1.9 billion for the NBP is double the P902 million allocated earlier by Congress, DICT Secretary Gregorio Honasan II had noted that “appreciation of the government sector for ICT being the future is still limited.”
DICT officials have been stressing the need for a government-owned broadband network, citing South Korea – with one of the fastest internets in the world – as a model for digital connectivity.
In 1995, the government of South Korea initiated the Korean Information Infrastructure Project – a 10-year program that started with laying internet infrastructure between government buildings.
The government allocated 32 trillion won (about P1.34 trillion) to build a national broadband backbone network, mainly through optic fiber cables.
Neighboring countries like Indonesia and Vietnam also allotted substantial government investments in internet and broadband infrastructure. – Rainier Allan Ronda