WITH runaway inflation at 5.4% and a new round of big-time oil price hike, the incoming administration should perhaps consider prioritize in realizing the failed salary increase promise of President Duterte to the neglected public school teachers.
The low salaries of teachers are not commensurate to their needs and that of their families, and to the indispensable role of teachers in delivering education to millions of youth. Our teachers’ economic hardships stem from the very basic problem of low salaries. It’s well-known how teachers struggle to feed their families and shoulder the costs of education even before the pandemic hit. They have long suffered the effects of poor support from the government and rising prices of goods and commodities, which only worsened amid the ongoing health and socioeconomic crises.
What we cannot understand is why is the administration is hell-bent on letting teachers – and consumers in general – suffer by not suspending the excise tax on oil.
Among President Duterte’s campaign promises were to double teachers’ salaries, which he repeated several times after being elected in office. However, only policemen’s and soldiers’ pay were doubled to at least P29,668 while teachers were only given around P1,500 annual increase through the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) V. Nurses, on the other hand, received a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court in 2019 which raised their entry-level pay to salary grade 15 — coming to a monthly P33,575 in 2021. These effectively left teachers behind as they only receive P23,877 in salaries per month in 2021.
With DepEd’s earlier acknowledgment that teachers in fact struggle financially, it is hoped that the incoming administration would heed the call for the long overdue pay hike for nearly a million of DepEd employees. Teachers deserve decent pay, not starvation wages.
