Teaching and rewards

Who says that teaching is not rewarding? That it’s all work and less pay. And, that the government does not pay attention to the plight of teachers.

All these claims are fallacy nowadays. You know why? As a teacher myself, I will contest these claims.

In my 31 years of teaching at the Cavite State University (CvSU), formerly Don Severino Agricultural College (DSAC) in Indang, Cavite, I consider the following experiences as very rewarding: 1) teaching has given me the opportunity for personal growth and career development, 2) provided an opportunity for my children to finish college on a subsidized scheme, 3) flattered me with the students’ reported enthusiasm and achievements, and 4) exposed me to government policies that alleviate the plight of those in teaching profession.

I started my teaching career in 1978 at the DSAC Laboratory School handling agriculture and practicum subjects for high school students. In 1981, a scholarship grant from the DSAC– Agricultural Education Outreach Project (a United States Agency for International Development funded project) gave me the chance to pursue and finish master’s degree program at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños. Again, after three years of continuous teaching, I continued pursuing graduate studies and in 1991, I was able to graduate with doctorate degree from the same institution through the DSAC–Faculty and Staff Development Program. In 1992, I was assigned to handle collegiate courses related to my field of specialization.

In State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), like the CvSU, by virtue of National Compensation Circular (NCC) Nos. 33 and 69, faculty members are given the opportunity for upward mobility. As assistant instructor in 1978, I was given an Instructor position in February 1984. Through NCC 33 evaluation, I was promoted to Instructor V in July 1984, to assistant professor IV in January 1988, to associate professor I in July 1989 and to professor I in December 1992. And, finally, on November 7, 1994, through NCC 69, I was promoted to professor VI. Through National Budget Circular (NBC) No. 461, I was qualified as university professor and I have passed the screening conducted by the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC), however, due to the quota system, I was constrained to still occupy professor VI at present.

As a teacher, I was designated public information officer in 1991, hence, from then on I was given the opportunity to write news items, feature articles and prepare photo releases which are published in national newspapers and magazines. This is a task that I am doing up to this time. Lately, this experience is also financially rewarding on my part.

One of the rewards I got from teaching is that my four children finished their respective college education at CvSU with very minimal expenses due to their scholarships as employee dependents. They are all employed at present and two of them followed my footsteps – they are also teaching at CvSU.

Other intrinsic rewards out of teaching were when my undergraduate students claim that they are anticipating and waiting enthusiastically their time slots for my class and the claim of graduate students that despite their busy schedule in their respective professions, they do not like to miss attending their classes under my tutelage. Likewise, I am very proud to hear and/or see that my previous students are successful in their chosen careers.

And lastly, I consider the newly approved Salary Standardization Law III as the government’s care and protection to civil servants including teachers. The entry level of teachers was elevated by one salary grade, from Salary Grade (SG) 10 to 11. There is also a plan that teachers handling mathematics, sciences, physics and chemistry courses will be given three horizontal steps as their incentives.

I could not imagine that a teacher like me, who earned P550 per month as an assistant instructor 31 years ago, will earn P73,000 or more as my basic salary as SUC professor VI come 2012. On top of this, there are overload pay and honoraria for other services and functions rendered, say teaching graduate courses in the CvSU Graduate School and serving as resource speaker/lecturer or training facilitator/coordinator of CvSU Continuing Education and Training Services and International Training Program.

These experiences that I narrated are almost true to majority of faculty members among SUCs, CSIs and TSIs in the entire country.

Postscript: This is an unsolicited advice for the officials of the Department of Education (DepEd). Kindly review the nomenclature of the position classification and compensation of CHED and TESDA Supervised Institutions under NBC 461. If you could equate the positions and compensation of DepEd with that of CSIs and TSIs, say positions as teacher I-VI with respective SG from 11 to 16 and master teacher I-VII with SG 17-23, respectively, then there are so many steps in the career path for our DepEd teachers to look up to and possibly to be achieved. Hence, everybody will be happy and fulfilled for having landed in the teaching profession.

ANTONIO G. PAPA, PhD teaches at the CvSU Graduate School and University.