Teachers are thankful and at the same time dismayed on the salary increase scheme presented by the government for 2020.
Salary increase for all government employees
PHILIPPINES – Government employees are welcoming 2020 with an expected salary increase. All government employees will receive a gradual increase in their salary, starting in January 2020 until 2023. The increase includes teachers who have been longing for it for quite a long time already.
Thankful but “not enough”
While the Department of Education welcomes the salary increase for teachers with gratitude, teacher groups expressed mixed emotions on how the increase will be implemented.
The Teacher’s Dignity Coalition (TDC) appreciated the action made by the government to increase the teacher’s salary, but quite dismayed at the same time for it’s far from what they expected. The TDC is expecting around $200 (P10,000) increase in teacher’s salary along with other personnel under the DepEd payroll.
The teacher’s party-list representative Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) also criticizes the increase in wage for being insignificant, especially at a gradual rate of implementation.
According to ACT secretary-general Raymond Basilio, teachers do not deserve such a minimal increase after years of waiting.
The law governing the new scheme in the increase in salary for teachers is a betrayal to the interest of the nation, a betrayal to the promise made to over 800,000 public teachers.
Motivational enough?
The Department of Education welcomed the increase in salary as a motivation not only for teachers but also for non-teaching personnel.
It is a welcome development that the agency appreciates. Despite the rebuilding efforts of the government on different concerns of the country, it never forgets its promises. The department well supports the step by step progress.
But, for Mr. Basilio, the increase is not enough to compensate for the hard work teachers make to uplift the education system in the country.
Teachers play a key role in national development as front liners of education. The government continues to neglect their welfare.
Teachers have been left behind when it comes to entry-level salary compared to other government employees, such as nurses and uniformed personnel, whose at a $600 (P30,000) starting salary. In contrast, teachers are merely at $460(P23,000) monthly.
This was not the lowest salary adjustment for teacher though, the lowest percentage ever recorded was during the past Aquino administration at less than 30 percent.
Featured image by UNTVNews
