Sen. Edgardo Angara made the appeal as he said the Department of Education (DepEd) must be aggressive in its campaign to stem the recruitment of Filipino mentors by foreign institutions.
"Teachers are the unsung heroes of our time. They are considered the heart of our educational system. In reality, they are overworked, and yet the most underpaid, unprivileged and unappreciated in our society," he said.
Angara stressed a competitive salary level for the teachers will greatly motivate them to excel in their field and improve the quality of education in public schools.
The former education secretary and president of the University of the Philippines System said a competitive salary will also lessen the exodus of the country’s best mentors to foreign countries.
Citing the report of Commission on Filipino Overseas, an agency attached to Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Angara said that the number of emigrant teachers reached a total 9,600 in 2001.
He noted that around 32,000 Filipinos working as domestic helpers in Hong Kong, Singapore and Middle East were teachers, or at least had some background on teaching.
"Unless more drastic measures are taken to train the remaining teachers, we may soon find ourselves in a deep intellectual void," Angara said.
He noted that a new teacher in a public school receives P10,000 excluding withholding taxes.
"Most of the teachers have net take-home pay of less than five thousand pesos because of so many deductions from their loans. In addition to this, there are the usual deductions made such as Government Service Insurance Premiums, withholding taxes, PhilHealth contributions, among others," Angara said. — With Marvin Sy