Teachers seek dialogue with Noy

MANILA, Philippines - The teachers’ group Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) expressed hope that they would be able to meet President Aquino today as they celebrate World Teachers’ Day.

ACT secretary general France Castro said that Aquino would show his appreciation for public school teachers by holding a dialogue with the group’s leaders.

“We need more than greetings and be called heroes. We need concrete answers on our 10-point demand for greater budget in education. Our campaign for additional chalk and teaching supplies allowance is one of our demands,” Castro said.

Benjie Valbuena, ACT vice-chairman, said the planned dialogue with the President today will be their third attempt to have an audience with the Chief Executive and expressed hope that they will not be disappointed on World Teachers’ Day.

Valbuena said that ACT, along with other teachers’ groups and federations, would hold coordinated activities to commemorate World Teachers’ Day nationwide.

Castro said the public school teachers would appreciate the approval by the Department of Education (DepEd) of the sufficient increase in the chalk allowance.

He said that the proposed P300 increase in the current P700 chalk allowance was not enough.

‘Maybe P-Noy can consider granting our full demand for chalk and teaching supplies of P2,000/year. At least, he could make us smile a bit on World Teachers’ Day if he grants this minimum demand of ours in a set of ten demands,” Castro reiterated.

“The campaign for additional chalk and teaching supplies allowance is part of our 10-point demand that essentially calls for greater budget in education and other social services,” Valbuena said.

The other demands of the teachers include the regularization of all volunteer and contractual teachers, approval of the 104,000 new permanent teacher items, Salary Grade 15 for Teacher 1, Salary Grade 16 for Instructor 1 in state colleges and universities, P6,000 increase in base pay of non-teaching personnel, increase in base productivity pay to P5,000, increase of the clothing allowance to P6,000, increase in the DepEd budget of P91.5 billion to enable it to address the shortage of classrooms and other school facilities, adequate budget for the universal kindergarten program, and higher state subsidy for Philippine Normal University and all state colleges and universities.

“As Chief Executive of the country, we know that he is in a position to make World Teachers’ Day 2011 a memorable one. So Mr. President, don’t let us down,” Castro said.