FEB.

27, 2015

NR # 3755B

Solon seeks to raise monthly minimum wage of public

school teachers to P25K & non-teaching personnel to P15K
A House leader is seeking to raise the monthly minimum wage of teachers in all
public elementary and secondary schools to P25,000 and non-teaching personnel to
P15,000 in pursuit of the State policy for teaching to attract and retain the best available
talents through adequate remuneration.
Rep. Marlyn L. Primicias-Agabas (6th District, Pangasinan), chairperson of the
House Committee on Revision of Laws, said it is an understatement to say that teachers
are the most exhausted, abused and taken advantage of among the countrys public
servants.
Teachers are considered as the second parents of our children. They are tasked to
teach classroom lessons and even mold the values of our youth. Aside from their teaching
responsibilities, they also perform other duties that the State would delegate them to do.
And with their massive work, compensation is not enough, said Primicias-Agabas.
She said the inadequate compensation drives the best of the countrys educators to
look for better employment outside the academe and some outside the country. And that
leaves our children without the best educators that they could have, said PrimiciasAgabas.
Primicias-Agabas said enshrined in the 1987 Constitution is the policy of the State
providing for the highest budgetary priority to education and ensure that teaching will
attract and retain its rightful share of the best available talents through adequate
remuneration and other means of job satisfaction and fulillment.
She said this policy is further strengthened by the Magna Carta for Public School
Teachers, which ensured that the compensation levels of teachers should be comparable
with other occupations requiring equivalent qualifications.
Thus, to ensure the State will continuously fulfill its responsibility and accomplish
its declared policies, it is aimed to increase the minimum salaries of teaching and nonteaching personnel in all public elementary and secondary schools. In the end, investment
in education will bring our country forward and the future of the generations that will
eventually reap its benefits, said Primicias-Agabas.
In House Bill 5402, Primicias-Agabas proposed that the present minimum salaries
of teachers in public elementary and secondary schools should be upgraded from P18,549
to P25,000 a month and the salaries of those occupying higher positions shall be adjusted
accordingly.

The bill also raises the present minimum salaries of non-teaching personnel in the
public elementary and secondary schools from P9,000 to P15,000 a month and the salaries
of those occupying higher positions shall be adjusted accordingly.
Covered by measure shall be all teaching and non-teaching personnel in all public
elementary and secondary schools, including those in technical and vocational schools and
state universities and colleges (SUCs).
The bill further provides the government shall appropriate such amount as may be
necessary to carry out the objectives of the Act, and that the salary increase of teaching
and non-teaching personnel in public schools shall take priority over non-educational and
non-agricultural budgetary allocations.
Lastly, the amount necessary to implement the provisions of the Act shall be
included in the budget of the Department of Education (DepEd) in the annual General
Appropriations Act (GAA). (30) rbb