MANILA – A Senate measure increasing allowances of public school teachers to P10,000 in four years has been approved on second reading earlier this week.
Senate Bill No. 1092 states that the increase in allowance will be done in three phases.
Public school teachers will receive an additional P5,000 for their teaching allowance next year. It will increase to P7,500 by school year 2023-2024 and to P10,000 by school year 2024-2025.
Currently, public school teachers only receive P3,500 allowance.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon initially suggested increasing teachers’ allowances to P20,000, but he balked at his proposal due to the expected lower tax collections due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We recognize the need of our teachers to have this allowance because of the changes in the nature of their functions as a result of the pandemic, they may need more funds than the P5,000 being proposed,” the Ilonggo senator said.
Meanwhile, the Department of Education extended P1,500 incentive to about 880,000 public school teachers last Oct. 5, in time for the celebration of World Teachers’ Day and the opening of “blended” classes in public schools./PN
