Labor Day woes: PMA cadet earning better than public school teachers

MANILA, Philippines - A lawmaker on Tuesday said a licensed entry-level  teacher is earning much lower than a high school graduate who enters the Philippine Military Academy as a cadet.

A statement from the House of Representatives said a lawmaker has vowed to pursue his proposal to upgrade the minimum salaries of public elementary and high school teachers  from Salary Grade 11 to Level 15 to motivate and to keep highly qaulified teachers from leaving the country.

“A duly licensed professional teacher occupying the entry-level position of Teacher 1, with a monthly salary of P15,649.00 earns substantially less than a high school graduate who enters the Philippine Military Academy as a cadet, with a monthly stipend of P21,709,” Tinio said  when he filed his measure in 2010.

He said the current salaries of public school teachers do not compare favorably with other occupations in government

Tinio added that neither does teachers’ pay compare favorably with those employed as call center agents in the private sector. The salary for call center employment, which requires neither formal education nor a bachelor's degree, ranges from P12,500 to P20,000 a month.

In 2010, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said the family living wage in the National Capital Region (NCR) was estimated at P957 per day or more than P21,054 per month, in sharp contrast to the P15,649 monthly salary of a Teacher 1.

“In order to cope with this ‘living salary gap,’ teachers resort to borrowing and are heavily indebted to government financial institutions such as the GSIS, private lending entities, or even loan sharks,” Tinio said.

Tinio lamented that the situation is pushing the most qualified teachers out of the country to seek better pay and working conditions. While an entry-level Teacher 1 receives P203,437 annual pay, Filipino teachers in the United States receive annual salaries ranging from P1.5-million to P2.1 million.

“The efforts of government to upgrade the educational system cannot succeed for as long as teachers are taken for granted,” Tinio said.