In accordance with their intention to increase the ratio of teacher to student, the Department of Education has committed to hiring an additional 10,000 teachers in the following year. They do so in order to make class sizes smaller in public schools so that the quality of education may rise.
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New teachers who will be hired can expect a starting salary of Php 21,000 per month. Though this may not be competitive compared to other fields Education Secretary Leonor Briones has promised additional benefits.
“Meron tayong (we have) additional benefits, cash allowance,” she stated. These ‘additional benefits’ pertain to bonuses, a 2-month paid vacation, and “special hardship pay” should you be assigned to distant areas. Also, these teachers would be fulfilling permanent positions.
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Funding for these additional salaries come from the expanded budget of 2020. From a budget of Php 530.23 billion in 2019, the government has proposed for a near 4% increase to Php 550.9 billion.
Although the education department is lawfully mandated to receive the biggest cut of the national budget, this amount is actually still lacking for DepEd’s initial plans. They had originally intended to hire 41,000 new teachers but were only afforded the budget for 10,000.
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