Ei-iE

Educators in the Philippines have reacted strongly after a law was passed, granting them a ‘meagre’ and ‘insulting’ salary increase, while other sectors received a much higher salary raise.

Under the 2015 Salary Standardisation Law (SSL), teachers and nurses will receive a salary increase of under 12 per cent from 18,549 Filipino pesos (PHP) (US$390) a month to 20,745 PHP (US$440). According to Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), this is only 2,205 PHP (US$47), and when divided into four tranches would be US$12 each year.

The SSL was passed on 9 December 2015 by 170 votes, with only five voting against.

Union disappointment

“Although we were a little glad with the improvement in teachers’ salaries, we were unhappy with the meagre increase,” said Francisca Castro, General Secretary of the ACT and a member of Education International’s Executive Board. “This is a small success following our struggle for a decent and living wage, but we deserve more than this.”

The ACT had appealed for a minimum monthly salary of 25,000 PHP (US$530) for teachers and 16,000 PHP (US$340) as a minimum monthly salary for non-teaching education personnel.

On 17 December 2015, together with other governmental employees, ACT organised a massive rally in Mendiola, a district in the capital city, Manila, where the presidential palace stands, to show the government their strong condemnation of this “insulting” salary increase.

Senate appeal

Public school teachers, meanwhile, urged senators to consider amending the 2015 SSL.

The ACT President, Benjamin Valbuena, said senators only had the same response on their lobby campaign in the Senate. “We were told that the 2015 SSL would be passed as it is, because it is what the Secretary of the Department of Budget and Management Florencio Abad and President Aquino want,” said Valbuena at the protest by public school teachers in front of the Senate on 9 December 2015.

The trade union said senators were voted by the people and should listen to the voice of the majority instead of Abad and Aquino.

Left behind

So much has changed through the years, but the salaries of public school teachers have failed to keep up, he insisted. Their workloads have increased, their bonuses are now based on performance, they are forced to innovate their teaching methods without proper government funding, and forced to do considerable administrative work, such as encoding students’ names in the Department of Education website, he explained.

“Teachers have the greatest responsibility, but the enormous salary gap compared to top government officials is appalling,” said Valbuena. “The SSL 2015 will widen the gap, create a perverse bias against education and undermine the possibility of improving the poor education quality,” he said.