Angara 'confident' of pay raise for teachers under Marcos admin

MANILA, Philippines — Newly appointed Education Secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara said he is “confident” that the salaries of teachers will significantly increase under the Marcos administration.

“Yes, that (increase in salary) is the constant need of our teachers. I know also that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is studying (it). It is only a question of how much and when, but definitely it will increase,” Angara said during a chance interview with reporters at Malacañang after his oath-taking on Friday night.

“I’m confident that during the Marcos administration, (teachers) salary will increase,” the former senator added.

In a video update uploaded on its Facebook page on Friday, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said its leaders had a dialogue with Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman on Thursday, wherein the latter said there would be another round of salary increase for government workers, including public school teachers, under Salary Standardization Law (SSL) 6.

“There would be a salary increase under the planned SSL 6. This will have a retroactive implementation from January (2024) with a total estimated budget of P40 billion,” ACT Teachers Party-list chairman Antonio Tinio said in the video.

Tinio, however, said their group does not see the supposed salary increase under the planned SSL 6 to be substantial.

“The clear message here is, even if there would be an SSL 6, it still cannot meet what we have been calling for: P50,000 entry level salary for Teacher 1 and P33,000 for Salary Grade 1 (education employees). So, our fight for the P50,000 entry level salary for our teachers shall continue,” Tinio, who led the ACT delegation during the dialogue with the DBM officials, said.

Also raised by the group during the dialogue was the need to double the budget for education for 2025 and onwards “to meet the international education budget standards of equivalent to six percent of the gross domestic product.”

Both the ACT and the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) have been pushing for the P50,000 entry-level salary for teachers; P33,000 monthly salary for Salary Grade I education employees and P30,000 monthly salary (Salary Grade 16) for those under Instructor 1 classification.

The groups have also been calling to set minimum salary standards for private school teachers to be at par with those in public schools.

The ACT and TDC earlier lamented that the existing salary scheme – under Republic Act 11466 or SSL 5 enacted during the term of former president Rodrigo Duterte – has failed to substantially compensate public school teachers, especially those in lower positions.

The SSL V raised the basic entry-level salaries of public school teachers to P27,000 through phased implementation from 2020 to 2023. The SSL V places teachers at Salary Grade 11, the lowest among government professionals.

The ACT and TDC earlier said they are currently working with several legislators at the House of Representatives in drafting bills that would align teachers’ salaries with the standards outlined in the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers rather than the SSL. — Alexis Romero