MANILA, Philippines — Education Secretary Leonor Briones said she is not opposed to salary hike for public school teachers as she vowed that the long-sought increase will come.
In a statement, Briones said the pay hike for teachers is currently being discussed.
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“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 said.
She added: “I have been working with the economic team in the Cabinet to find ways and means to realize a salary increase for DepEd’s close to 830,000 teachers.”
Duterte has repeatedly vowed to increase the pay of teachers even when he was still campaigning for the presidency. But educators’ salaries remain low while the pays for police and military personnel have doubled.
‘Misunderstood’
The Education chief said her earlier remark on the issue was “misunderstood” or “misrepresented to be a position against a salary increase.”
During the opening of a new school year Monday, Briones said a P10,000 across the board increase would require an additional P150 billion annually.
“Raising such amount will have to consider corresponding policies in taxes, borrowing or budget reallocation,” Briones said Friday.
She also noted that the salaries of public school teachers have already overtaken their counterparts in private schools. This, despite the pronouncements of teachers’ federations that the salaries of educators in the country remain meager.
“There have been serious efforts to uplift teachers’ conditions that the public should also be made aware of,” Briones.
DepEd Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla said on Monday that the agency would “review and propose additional benefits for public school teachers.”
Briones then promised that the next salary increase of public school teachers would come.
“As secretary of education and member of the Cabinet, it is my duty to help make sure that salary increase is equitable, within the government’s means and sustainable,” she said.