Public school teachers welcome passage of kindergarten law

MANILA, Philippines - Public school teachers welcomed the passage of Republic Act 10157 or the Kindergarten Law, but reiterated their call that public kindergarten school teachers should be paid properly and not just be given a measly P3,000 monthly honorarium.

RA 10157 is set to be signed into law by President Aquino on Feb. 20 in Malacañang, with Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, other congressmen and senators, and Education Secretary Armin Luistro witnessing the ceremony.

Benjo Basas, national chairman of the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC), a federation of the public school teachers’ associations all over the country, said that public school teachers themselves had joined the lobby for a law making primary education universal or mandatory.

“This is the most rational and essential part of the so-called K (Kindergarten) to 12 program of the DepEd. The Filipino children badly needed an accessible and quality kindergarten education to higher levels of learning,” said Basas.

According to TDC, a free and universal pre-school education would eventually resolve learning discrepancies and would increase the school performance of learners especially in elementary level.

RA 10157, “An Act Institutionalizing the Kindergarten Education into the Basic Education system and Appropriating Funds Therefore,” provides for a free and compulsory kindergarten education beginning school year 2012-2013.

The Department of Education had already started the program this year with the introduction of free kindergarten program amid criticisms from the teachers’ groups, especially on the compensation for kindergarten teachers.

“The unfair and unacceptable terms of service and an honorarium of P3,000 per month, which is only equal to that of a household helper, are serious threats to the dignity of our teachers,” Basas said, adding that what makes the matter worse is that the release of the honorarium was always delayed for at least five months.

However, his group anticipates a better treatment for kinder teachers once the law takes effect.

“We hope that by this law, kinder teachers will be properly compensated and thus boost the quality of early childhood education,” he said.

Basas reiterated that DepEd and the national government should make the welfare of teachers and the quality of education a “paramount consideration.”

“The system would need specially trained pre-school teachers with acceptable terms of service and proper compensation in order to implement the program,” he said.

The DepEd estimated that around 27,000 new teaching items are needed for kindergarten system for this current school year, which costs around P5.7-billion funding just for salaries. However, only P2 billion was set aside for the universal kindergarten program and only 3,000 kinder teachers are holding permanent items.

“We need a strong early childhood and elementary education if we are sincere enough to implement the ambitious K-12 program,” Basas said.

He challenged President Aquino to make the education sector a priority of his administration.

“This is his flagship program for education... he should be giving more attention and funds for this,” he said.