Seeking to raise the cash allowance for public school teachers, Batangas Representative Vilma Santos filed House Bill 3449.
Photo from Educo.org
This House Bill aims to raise the annual cash allowance of public school teachers to P10,000 so that they may be able to purchase the necessary teaching materials such as chalks, erasers, forms and other classroom supplies.
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A 185% increase in the current P3,5000 provided to them is needed due to Rep. Santos believing that public school teachers’ salaries are not adequate in line with the work they do.
Under House Bill 3449, P3,500 annual cash allowance for teaching supplies will be given to each public school teacher will be charged to the current budget of the DepEd and the P6,500 left will be issued from the department’s available funds or savings.
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“In spite of the increasing budget allocation that the Department of Education (DepEd) enjoys, the cash allowance they provide to teachers just translates to a P16-subsidy per day, which is relatively insufficient in assisting classroom teachers to deliver informative lectures and stimulating class discussions to the country’s 22.1 million public schools,” Santos shared.
The representative aims to increase their cash allowance to compensate the teachers for their heavy workload and the money that these teachers had to take out of their own wallets in order to provide supplies to teach.
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The representative believes in the importance of teachers in the development of the people in our country, Santos shares: “Teachers should be given priority attention, they being contributors to the mental development and the formation of moral and ethical values of our youth. With this additional allowance, the burden on public school teachers will be alleviated and their working conditions will certainly improve.”
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