Private educators pledge collaboration with Angara

MANILA, Philippines — Private schools under the Coordinating Council of Private Education Association (COCOPEA) expressed their support yesterday for new Education Secretary Sonny Angara.

In an open letter addressed to Angara, the group said it is “excited” to work with the Department of Education (DepEd) under Angara’s leadership in addressing the country’s educational needs.

“Under your leadership, we are excited to engage in constructive dialogue… We aim to address our country’s educational needs, focusing on quality, public-private collaboration, access and expanding government assistance and subsidies. We firmly believe that your leadership will bring about meaningful reforms that will address the pressing challenges,” COCOPEA said.

The COCOPEA is composed of five national educational associations – the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines, Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities, Association of Christian Schools, Colleges and Universities, Philippine Association of Private Schools, Colleges and Universities and the Unified Technical and Vocational Education and Training of the Philippines.

“We are ready to share our collective expertise and resources as we work together in the spirit of an all-of-society approach. We look forward to a fruitful partnership and are eager to support your endeavors to enhance the quality of education in the Philippines,” the letter read.

Angara convenes top execs

On his first day at the helm of DepEd, Angara convened the agency’s top officials under the executive committee (execom) yesterday to discuss preparations for the upcoming school year 2024-2025.

In a short statement with photos of the meeting, DepEd said also discussed were “policies and orders that need immediate action.”

Photos showed that more than 15 DepEd officials were present during the meeting held at the Office of the Secretary (OSEC) at the DepEd Central Office in Pasig City. Among those present was Assistant Secretary for operations Francis Cesar Bringas.

At least five ranking officials of the DepEd, including undersecretary and chief-of-staff Michael Poa, have tendered their resignation ahead of Angara’s takeover of the agency from its former secretary, Vice President Sara Duterte.

“Our resignations are effective July 19, 2024… I think it is only appropriate to give the incoming secretary of education, Secretary Angara, a free hand to choose the people that will form part of his team,” Poa told reporters on Tuesday.

Angara said he has already started drawing up a shortlist of names to replace those who resigned.

“(The) search is ongoing as we speak,” he earlier told The STAR, adding that he would announce new appointees “soon.”

First day requests

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) immediately asked Angara to issue an order suspending DepEd’s performance-based incentive system for teachers for the recently concluded school year and requested a dialogue on July 25 to discuss salary increase for teachers, DepEd’s budget for 2025, career progression for teachers and education personnel, teaching overload and other pressing issues in the education sector.

In a letter addressed to Angara yesterday signed by ACT secretary general Raymond Basilio, the group said teachers on the ground continue to receive directives mandating urgent submission of their Individual Performance Commitment and Review Form (IPCRF) and Office Performance Commitment and Review Forms (OPCRF) for 2023, under the DepEd’s Results-Based Performance Management System (RBPMS).

The IPCRF/OPCRF is an assessment tool used in rating the performance of teachers and school personnel for the year. It serves as DepEd’s primary basis in its implementation of the RBPMS and Performance-Based Bonus (PBB) for teachers and education personnel.

The ACT said the directives run counter to President Marcos’ Executive Order 61, which immediately suspends both the RBPMS and the Performance-Based Incentive System (PBIS).

“The issuance of Executive Order 61 was intended to provide immediate relief to our educators, allowing them to focus on more pressing responsibilities without the additional burden of RBPMS submission,” the ACT said. “The recent directives for submission not only disregard this suspension but also create confusion and undue pressure among teachers and education support personnel.”

In his EO 61 issued last month, Marcos ordered the suspension of the implementation of RBPMS and PBIS, which includes Productivity Enhancement Incentive and PBB, in all government offices.

Marcos said the RBPMS and PBIS must be harmonized with the ease of doing business initiatives and other international standards to avoid duplication and redundancy.

Meanwhile, ACT and the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) have reiterated their call for substantial salary increase for teachers.

In a video uploaded on its Facebook page on Friday, ACT said its leaders had a dialogue with Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman wherein she said there would be another round of salary increase for government workers, including public school teachers under Salary Standardization Law (SSL) 6.

“There would be a salary increase under the planned SSL 6. This will have a retroactive implementation from January (2024) with a total estimated budget of P40 billion,” former ACT Teachers party-list chairperson Antonio Tinio said in the video.

“The clear message here is, even if there would be an SSL 6, it still cannot meet what we have been calling for – P50,000 entry level salary for Teacher 1 and P33,000 for Salary Grade 1 (employees). So, our fight for the P50,000 entry level salary for our teachers shall continue,” Tinio, who led the ACT delegation during the dialogue on Thursday with the Department of Budget and Management officials, added.

Tinio said also raised by their group during the dialogue was the need to double the budget for education for 2025 and onwards “to meet the international education budget standards of equivalent to six percent of the gross domestic product.”

Both ACT and TDC have been pushing for P50,000 entry-level salary for teachers; P33,000 monthly salary for Salary Grade I education employees, and P30,000 monthly salary (Salary Grade 16) for those under Instructor 1 classification.

The groups have also been calling to set minimum salary standards for private school teachers, at par with those in public schools.

ACT and TDC earlier lamented that the existing salary scheme under Republic Act 11466, or SSL V enacted during the term of former president Rodrigo Duterte, has failed to substantially compensate public teachers, especially those in lower positions.

SSL V raised the basic entry-level salaries of public school teachers to P27,000 through phased implementation from 2020 to 2023. SSL V places teachers at Salary Grade 11, the lowest among government professionals. — Sheila Crisostomo