Salary hike for teachers? DepEd defers answer until World Bank study complete

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education has deferred its position on salary increases for teachers pending a World Bank study it commissioned last year that will assess the feasibility and extent of pay hikes long sought by education groups.

This comes after a series of actions earlier this week in the halls of Congress and in schools calling to raise the salaries for public school teachers – a long-sought measure that is being revived by lawmakers and teacher groups now to help teachers cope with inflation. 

Makabayan bloc lawmakers refiled a bill on Tuesday seeking to nearly double entry-level public school teachers’ pay to P50,000 — a "living wage" amount that they say is just enough to keep up with the rising cost of goods and the “distortion” of military personnel’s wages during the term of former President Rodrigo Duterte. 

A day after the bill was filed, teachers’ group Alliance of Concerned Teachers held school-based protests in Metro Manila to demand an increase in teachers' pay, stressing that they can only “perform well if the economic and professional rights are addressed properly.”

While the department remains an “advocate” in providing teachers with additional benefits, DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa said that they cannot comment on the amount being lobbied in the House for now as they wait for the results of the WB study.

“As a matter of fact, even prior to the bill being filed, DepEd had already engaged the World Bank to provide a study, not only on whether an increase should be made, but also on the ideal percentage of increases for the coming years vis-a-vis inflation rates,” Poa said.

The DepEd official added that they will bring up the results of the WB study during the House’s deliberations of House Bill 9920 and are now forwarding pertinent data to the international organization.

The WB study seeks to answer whether there is a need to increase teachers’ salaries and by how much, Poa said.

“Not only for a one-time increase, but also the amount of increases for the next few years. We want to see the recommended amount or percentage of increases in the next few years due to inflation rates,” he said.

Last year, ACT criticized the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for rejecting its petition to approve a salary increase for teachers that would have bumped up entry-level pay from P27,000 to P36,000. 

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The teacher group pointed out that uniformed personnel received a whopping 100% increase in 2019 under Duterte, who is known to have pursued police- and military-centric populist policies.

In a February 2023 letter, the DBM said it could not approve the increase due to fiscal constraints – including the “high cost” of increasing teachers’ and public workers’ pay and the salary “distortion” it would cause.

ACT maintained that the annual adjustments in teachers’ pay have been "pennies" when compared to the actual family living wage — the amount a household needs to earn for a decent life — which it pegged at P34,000 a month in November 2022.

"The current salary level of teachers and other workers in government is not livable," ACT Chairperson Vladimir Quetua said.