Teachers as role model

The week that was saw the usual, same old problems cropping up at the opening of classes in many public schools all over the Philippines last Monday, June 3. It is a given fact for a fast growing country where the student population, now at 27.5 million, enrolls in various public schools all over the country for the school year 2019-2020.

So it is not a surprise when the Department of Education (DepEd), led by Secretary Leonor Briones, came under fire anew over these reported usual problems, such as classroom shortage, cropped up. In the particular case of Bacoor National High School, DepEd was taken to task for the conversion of a toilet as faculty room for its teachers.

It is just one of the 8,003 public high schools and 37,928 public elementary schools all over the Philippines, plus the more than 1,000 integrated schools under the K-to-12 program supported by the national government through DepEd.

What apparently irked Briones the most was when the militant Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) blamed DepEd for the teachers’ seeming sorry plight to make use of toilet as their faculty room. Actually, it first went viral in Facebook after one of the teachers posted a photo of the school’s toilet turned into a faculty room.

Leading the ceremonial kick-off of the opening of classes in Signal Village National High School in Taguig City last Monday, a visibly piqued Briones lashed at the reporters for bringing up the issue. She tried to explain that it was the teachers in that school themselves who chose the toilet as their faculty room because it is “more dramatic and touching” and “attractive” for media to pick up.

While I was still studying in Esteban Abada High School from 1974-1978, our teachers also converted toilets as their faculty rooms. The toilets at the ground floor of our three-storey school building were reserved for students’ use. It was not an issue before. Why should it be an issue now?

During the same occasion, Briones later complained, she was “misunderstood” or “misrepresented to be in a position against a salary increase” of P10,000 a month across-the-board hike as demanded by ACT. She calculated this P10,000 across-the-board pay increase for DepEd personnel will add a staggering P150 billion to the DepEd payroll.

“Raising such amount will have to consider corresponding policies in taxes, borrowing or budget reallocation,” she warned.

In a press statement she issued subsequently, Briones clarified she is not opposed to salary hike for public school teachers. “As Education secretary and as an advocate, I am committed to the policy to promote and improve the social and economic status of public school teachers, their living and working conditions, and their terms of employment. I am in full support of the President’s pronouncement to raise the salaries of teachers,” Briones cited.

Incidentally, President Duterte at times fondly mentions her late mother, aside from being disciplinarian, was a public school teacher.

The President thus, has a bleeding heart when it comes to teachers’ plight. Unfortunately, instead of addressing the issues at hand, the DepEd Secretary let her temper got the better of her. The advance age of Briones perhaps seemingly has cut short her fuse. Now 78-year-old, Briones her self was once a member of the activist group Freedom from Debt Coalition, which has been staunchly espousing the wise use of government’s scarce resources for more important priorities like education.

At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay breakfast forum at Café Adriatico in Malate, Manila on Wednesday, Education Undersecretary for planning and field operations Jesus Lorenzo Mateo confirmed DepEd is working closely with the Cabinet economic team to find ways and means to implement a new round of salary increase for close to 830,000 public school teachers, out of its 1.4 million personnel, nationwide.

In fact, Mateo disclosed, the economic managers of President Duterte are currently discussing the planned pay hike not only for public school teachers but also for the rest of the government personnel in the next round of Salary Standardization Law (SSL).

This will become the SSL-5 that will be under the proposed 2020 budget that is currently being drawn up by the Cabinet economic team to be submitted to the incoming 18th Congress. The 2020 budget bill is targeted for submission on July 22 when President Duterte delivers his state of the nation address (SONA) at the traditional joint opening session of the new Congress.

Offhand, Mateo noted, the DepEd’s annual budget appropriation for this year was more than P500 billion, including the last tranche of the SSL-4 pay hike that was delayed following the budget impasse during the 17th Congress.

“At the end of the day, our economic managers will be the ones to decide if we can grant this or not. It’s not within the power of the department to grant that (P10,000 pay hike demand of ACT),” Mateo pointed out. Like the past four SSLs, he explained, the next round of SSL will again be implemented in tranches and not in one bulk.

Thus, the string of pay increases that public school teachers received each year have raised the average salary for an educator in public schools. According to Mateo, the salary entry level for teacher-1 averages at P20,754 a month.

This is the reason why, he admitted, many teachers in private schools migrate to public schools because of higher pay level in government.

Aside from the SSL, Mateo added, the DepEd is also looking at other ways of improving the welfare of public mentors, such as their continued issuance of the chalk allowance that is now raised to P2,500 per teacher.

I am a product of the public school system in our country and I’m very proud of it. Coming from an average income family of six children, we went through elementary, high school all the way to college in state-funded public schools.

Our teachers then were role models of virtues for hard work, honesty and patience. There was no ACT yet during those times to lead teachers to stage a no work strike protest to demand for higher pay.