Just like his late father, former Senate President Edgardo Angara, Senator Sonny Angara is also an active pro-education advocate. The re-electionist senator aims to double the pay of public school teachers when he filed Senate Bill 135 which seeks to adjust the teachers’ salary from salary grade 11 to 19.
Under this measure, the current teacher’s monthly base pay will be adjusted from P20,179 to P42,099.
The senator said:
“Our teachers are considered to be the heart of the educational system. The government needs to give priority to their welfare and interests. Definitely, this would lead to an improvement in the quality of education in our public school system.”
Given their workload and role in society, public school teachers are said to be the most underpaid workers. Hence, it’s no surprise why many of them are compelled to leave the classroom and look for other jobs.
Senator Angara believes that in order to have high-quality teachers and improve the quality of education in public schools in the country, the government should increase teachers’ salaries.
In a recent press release published in the Senate of the Philippines website, the Senator said that he also believes that money is not the most important motivation for educators because many of them love what they are doing and dedicated to their profession. But on the other hand, they are also not martyrs that’s why the society should value and compensate them accordingly.
Earlier this year, President Rodrigo Duterte vowed again to increase the salary of public school teachers as he also noted last year that they would be “next in line” to the military and police personnel, who were previously granted double pay.
The President did not mention how much increase he will give to teachers, but he clarified that this was on top of the fourth and last tranche of salary increases for all government employees to be implemented this year.
Meanwhile, Senator Sonny Angara expressed hope that the adjustment for teacher’s pay would be equivalent or close to the rate he has been promoting since 2016 when he filed Senate Bill 135.
source: yahoo, definitelyfilipino