Diokno: Public school teachers get higher pay

Public school teachers are not underpaid and overworked, contrary to the claims of some teachers’ groups, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said. (Photo courtesy of Department of Budget and Management)

MANILA — Public school teachers are not underpaid and overworked, contrary to the claims of some teachers’ groups, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said.

In a radio interview on Tuesday, Diokno said the current salary of public school teachers is twice more than the salary of their private school counterparts.

“There is a study, which Philippine Institute for Development Studies Senior Research Fellow Rosario Manasan did on that. For example, in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the salary of public school teachers is three times more than those of private school teachers,” he said in Filipino.

As part of the 2016 salary standardization, Diokno said teachers receive a basic pay increase plus other benefits.

“They have PHP20,179 plus other benefits, that will amount to around PHP29,000 minus the contributions such as GSIS (Government Service Insurance System), PhilHealth, etc., which they can use in the future,” he said.

Diokno added that PHP250,000 of the annual salary of teachers is tax-free because of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.

“If you’re earning half a million in a year, your tax rate is 25 percent instead of 32 percent. The teachers are included here. In fact, 99 percent of the tax filers benefit from the TRAIN law,” he said.

By first quarter of 2019, DBM will commission a private study to determine the appropriate salary for public school teachers come 2020 until the end of President Rodrigo Duterte’s term.

In relation to the issue about public school teachers being overworked, Diokno said they have two months’ vacation and the government has employed 600,000 teachers nationwide.

The number could still increase as more jobs are created for teaching personnel each year, he added.

Quezon City Public School Teachers Association Board of Director Kristhean Navales, in an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Wednesday, said public school teachers are overworked because they also perform administrative, clerical and janitorial tasks due to lack of non-teaching personnel in most schools.

“We are also overworked because of DBM’s (Department of Budget and Management’s) policy that is results-based performance. The teachers are preoccupied with the documentation of all the job we do,” he said.

Navales added that most teachers spend their two-month vacation in summer reading camps, seminars, elections and Brigada Eskwela; hence, they do not have time for a decent rest.

He also denied Diokno’s statement that public school teachers receive about PHP29,000 monthly pay because of additional benefits.

“The issue here is basic pay. Teachers without loans take home PHP19,000 monthly. Other allowances are PHP3,500 for chalk and

PHP5,000 for clothing per year and not per month,” he said.

In an interview earlier, Teacher’s Dignity Coalition national chairperson Benjo Basas told PNA that he proposes a monthly basic pay of PHP30,000, which he said can help public school teachers “raise their families with dignity.”