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'After 13 years': Marcos to sign bill doubling teaching supply allowance to P10,000

June 1, 2024 | 1:31pm

'After 13 years': Marcos to sign bill doubling teaching supply allowance to P10,000

A teacher watches her students walk inside a classroom after a short break at the start of classes at a school in Quezon City, suburban Manila on Aug. 22, 2022 as millions of children in the Philippines returned to school as the academic year started on August 22, with many taking their seats in classrooms for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

AFP / Ted Aljibe, File

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will approve a bill on Monday to increase the teaching supplies allowance from P5,000 to P10,000 starting School Year 2025-2026.

This was revealed to the public last Thursday night through an invitation sent by the Presidential Legislative Liason Office to ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro.

The ceremonial re-enactment of the signing into law of the "Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act" is set for June 3, 2024 at the Malacañan Palace in Manila. The letter was signed by PLLO Secretary Mark Llandro Mendoza.

"After a long fought battle to increase the Teaching Supplies Allowance (or chalk allowance) of teachers, the 'Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act' is now a law, hiking the current P5,000 teaching supplies allowance to P10,000," said the party in Filipino.

"This law was first filed by the ACT Teachers Party-list in 2011 and was brought to the forefront for years before being officially passed into law."

Teachers have long been clamoring for the said increase since the current allowance couldn't cover all the expenses needed to buy enough chalk, erasers, forms and other classroom suppplies. As a result, educators have been taking out money from their own pockets.

Said party-list spearheaded the most recent measure in the House of Representatives, which was later on passed in December 2023, with their approved version providing for P7,500 for SY 2024-2025 and P10,000 for SY 2025-2026 onwards.

Its counterpart bill in Senaate was likewise passed in May 2023. However, only P5,000 haas been granted for SY 2024-2025 in the reconciled Senate Bill 1964 and House Bill 9682 of the Bicameral Conference Committee.

It was officially transmitted to the Office of the President last May 3, 2024.

'Proof that collective action works'

In a separate statement, the Alliance of Concerneed Teachers (ACT) Philippines last Friday attributed the bill's passage to the tireless efforts of teachers and progressive supporters.

"This is proof that we could achieve victories through collective action alongside our genuine representatives inside the Congress, the ACT Teachers Party-list, who since 2011 have filed the bill seeking for the increase of teaching supplies allowance for our public school teachers," said Vladimer Quetua, ACT chairperson.

"Teachers have long been spending their own money for school supplies. Yearly, we take out a huge amount from our own pockets to fix classrooms. This includes teaching aid costs that we use for the benefit of children."

ACT likewise reiterated its call for a salary increase, including a P50,000 entry-level pay for teachers, P33,000 salary for salary grade 1 employees, SG16 for Instructor 1 in state universities and colleges, and P33,000 national minimum wage for all workers.