The Philippine Online Chronicles

Despite being called a “noble profession ” teaching does not elicit much enthusiasm as a profession in the Philippines. The conditions in which public school teachers work are the subject of back-to-school news features year after year. The statistics no longer come as a surprise - 22 million students enrolled in public schools this year so a single teacher has to do two shifts a day, with upwards of 70 students per class. They might have to hold classes outdoors, and make do with manila paper for visual aids. School supplies like books are also scarce as shown in the I-Witness documentary by Sandra Aguinaldo.

The June 1 editorial of Philstar.com bemoans how these problems have existed for decades.

Lapses in the system

The above point to larger problems within the education system. The Philippine education system was described by the 2008-2009 Philippine Human Development Report to be a puzzle with a consistent lack of leadership and funding at its core. The Department of Education (DepEd) has had 13 secretaries in 30 years, averaging a little over 2 years each at the department's helm. This has made long-term projects difficult to implement.

Exacerbating the situation is the lack of priority given to education with regard to the allocation of the the national budget. Senator Francis Escudero pointed out that the Constitution mandates that education must be given highest priority, but this has never been followed. In 2009, the budget allocation for education was increased to P157.9 billion. According to Senator Escudero, this is a pittance compared to the P600 billion for paying off national debt, or the P260 billion for the Internal Revenue Allotment of government units.

The education budget also came with an additional P2 billion for the construction of classrooms. Although this initially seems to be a large sum, P2 billion is good for constructing only 3,076 classrooms, when the actual need is 41,905, for teachers to attain a 1:45 ration with their students.

High cost of living

Where the national budget hurts teachers the most is in the pocket. As Butch Hernandez points out on Inquirer.net, no one becomes a teacher to make money.

P137 billion of this year's Education budget will be used to pay the 500,000 teachers and non-teaching personnel employed by the government. Despite this, teachers only receive a salary of around P12,000 monthly. Supporting a family of six entails around P20,000 per month.

Benjamin Valbuena, vice chairman of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) tells the online magazine Bulatlat that the current salary of teachers is not enough to cope with the cost of living.

As teacher Marissa Martinez says, “Life is very difficult nowadays. You have to be very frugal...every time I receive my salary, I have to think of ways to stretch our budget to cover our needs.”

Martinez, a teacher for 16 years, is the sole provider for her husband and three children. She also sees to the medical needs of her mother, who is diabetic. Her primary concern is that they have food. The rest of her salary goes to paying for housing and running water. During a difficult period, her household had to go without electricity for three months because Martinez couldn't pay the bill.

In order to make more money, Martinez took up a sideline as a dealer of soaps and beauty products. She is not the only teacher who has had to find alternative sources of income to support her family.

According to James Pagaduan, chair of the Action and Solidarity for the Empowerment of Teachers (Assert) in Central Luzon, “Some give tutorial classes. Others sell paper, notebook and other supplies to students, sell jewelry or just about anything. Others sell insurance or Avon products or ready-to-wear clothes or bring anything that they can sell in school.” He also mentioned that teachers are usually buried in debt.

In April, the forum “The Teacher's Plight to Survive” held at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines drew representatives from DepEd, the Philippine Public School Teachers Association (PPSTA) and other teachers' groups. They produced a manifesto saying, “We [who] comprise almost half of all government workers remain to be one of the lowest paid and most overworked in the country today. Our salaries are lower than our counterparts in the military and police, many of whom do not possess the college degree, qualifications and eligibilities required of us.”

The insight is nothing new. The 1991 Congressional Commission on Education (EdComm) reported that the “level of compensation of teachers is low relative to the functional definition of the teaching job, the sensitiveness of the teaching responsibility, the technical requirements of the job, the time required for it and the intellectual demands it makes.”

Due to low compensation, some teachers jump ship and take up teaching posts abroad, where the pay is significantly better. Some go to China or Taiwan where English-speaking teachers are given premium wage. Many others go to the United States where teachers can earn up to ten times more than they did in the Philippines. In Maryland, for instance, a Filipino teacher was offered an annual salary of $43,481.

The brain drain has not gone unnoticed. According to Caloocan City Rep. Mary Cajayon, “Our teachers are not accorded due recognition and importance they deserve...it is no wonder that the best and brightest among them are now teaching abroad, or worse, have migrated to work as caregivers or domestic helpers.”

“Inadequate” wage increases

For those who choose to stay in the Philippines, the fight for higher wages is an uphill battle. Groups like the ACT, PPSTA and Teacher's Dignity Coalition (TDC) have been pushing for wage hikes over the last few years. Their best hope would have been the passing of House Bill 5213 that would grant a P9,000 increase in wage over the span of three years. The bill was sponsored by Representative Del de Guzman and supported by Representative Teofisto Guingona III.

However, when time came to pass the amended Salary Standardization Law (SSL 3) in May 2009, HB 5213 was junked in favor of House Joint Resolution 36, sponsored by Speaker Prospero Nograles, Jr. This gave teachers a salary increase of P6,500, although other workers on the government's payroll, especially members of the military, could expect to double their salaries over the span of four years.

While some teachers were happy with any wage increase at all, the teachers' associations spent the days leading up to the opening of classes rallying for the rejection of SSL 3.

On the P6,500 increase, ACT chairperson Antonio Tinio said, “Spread out over four years, this will translate to a mere P1,625 monthly increase per year. This is substantially less than our demand for a Php 9,000 hike over the next 3 three years.”

They also protested against the “distortions in the government’s standardized pay scale that placed teachers at a disadvantage” in comparison to military personnel, who already had higher wages to begin with.

“An army private currently receives a higher total monthly compensation than a public school teacher. A cadet in the Philippine Military Academy receives the same basic pay as an associate professor in one of our state universities and colleges. The SSL 3 will perpetuate this injustice to the teaching profession.”

Benjo Basas, national chairman of TDC, added “[The 1991 EdComm] says that the teacher positions must be leveled to that of an army lieutenant and not to be placed among the lowest government professional.”

Although the changes these teachers are looking for have not come to pass, their advocacy receives substantial support from non-teachers. Representative Guingona has voiced out that the pay hike stipulated in SSL 3 was “inadequate”. Other members of the House of Representatives such as Luz Ilagan, Liza Maza, and Rufus Rodriguez have been lauded by ACT “for their determined efforts in pushing for a substantial salary increase for teachers.”

Despite the overwhelming circumstances educators have to face for proper compensation, teachers continue to do what they have chosen to do.

Dr. Virginia Cuevas, 2008 Metrobank Foundation Search for Outstanding Teachers awardee says, “Teaching is not only a profession; it is a passion...”

“Mababa ang sweldo ng mga teachers. They must love the profession. Service kasi ito, saka noble mission of being able to influence and mold the minds of the youth. Napaka-gandang mission na makatulong ka especially sa development ng potential ng individual. And then secondly, contribution din para sa development ng country (The pay is low. They must love their profession. It is a service, and a noble mission to be able to influence and mold the minds of the youth. It is a beautiful mission that helps in the development of the potential of the individual. It is also contribution to the development of the country).”

Photo taken from Proust at flickr.