Angara says P50,000 salary increase for teachers 'doable'
EDUCATION Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara on Tuesday said the proposed P50,000 increase in the entry-level salary of public school teachers was «doable» if the government's fiscal condition improves.
Speaking to reporters, Angara said that for now, the increase in the teachers' pay continues under the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) for government workers.
«Maybe in the future, if the government's fiscal condition improves,» Angara said during a chance interview when asked if the proposed P50,000 pay hike for teachers was doable.
Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara. PCO Photo«But in the near term, the SSL made by the President is quite okay because Teacher 1, for example, we only see the monthly when you compute the basic salary. It seems small but if you look at it in one year, it will increase by P33,000 for one year. It's not bad,» he added.
Angara, former Senate Committee on Finance chief, had been pushing for a wage hike for government employees, especially when he was still head of the panel.
In February, Makabayan bloc lawmakers France Castro of ACT Teachers party-list, Arlene Brosas of Gabriela party-list and Raoul Manuel of Kabataan party-list filed House Bill 9920, seeking a P50,000 entry-level salary for public school teachers.
AdvertisementThe proposed substantial salary increases for public school teachers would «close the gap between their salaries and the cost of living.»
They said it would also «address the distortion created by the doubling of entry-level pay of military and uniformed personnel.»
If passed, this would almost double the basic wage for public school teachers of about P27,000 a month, Castro said. This would also be roughly the equivalent of Salary Grade 15 under the SSL.
Earlier, Angara said he would study the proposal in coordination with other agencies, such as the Department of Finance and the Department of Budget and Management.
Advertisement«The salary increase of government employees is set by Congress. And we are 100 percent supportive of that and we have been pushing for that, especially when I was part of the Senate Committee on Finance,» he said in an earlier interview.
«Let's see and study it. We are 100 percent in
