Call for equity in increasing teachers' salaries

IN the ongoing discussions on the proposed national budget, we again hear proposals to legislate a raise in the salary of public school teachers. The latest discussion is to implement an across-the-board salary increase of P15,000. According to Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara, with an estimated number of over 800,000 public school teachers, a gargantuan budget of around p400 billion to p500 billion would be needed for this.

But what about the private school teachers? Not all private schools can afford such an increase in the salaries of their teachers. The average salary of a private high school teacher is P17,000 per month, according to the 2021 annual Philippine Business and Industry Survey conducted by the PSA. This pales in comparison with the current entry-level salary of P27,000 per month for a public school teacher. The policy environment governing the salaries of public school teachers is very different from that of private school teachers. Salary rates in private schools are regionalized as determined by regional wage boards, whereas salary rates for public school teachers are legislated and implemented across all regions. This structure makes it close to impossible to narrow the gap in the salary rates between the two sectors, considering that the rates in the private sector are dictated by tuition rates, and the salaries are parent-funded and not government-funded, as in the case of public school teachers.

THE LEGAL MIND