Over 300,000 private school teachers may also need govt aid — Recto

MANILA, Philippines – More than 300,000 private school teachers may also need to be given social aid, especially those whose work is based on the number of teaching hours, Senator Ralph Recto said on Friday.

Recto explained this was due to the COVID-19 pandemic effect on the income of schools that do not get direct support from the government.  However, he also noted that such issues are not amplified or getting enough traction because most of them are considered part of the middle class.

“About 330,000 teachers in private schools will be financially impacted, with either pay cuts or totally losing their pay in the case of those paid per lecture hour,” the senator said in a statement.

“Mas madami pa sila sa mga UV drivers sa bansa. But their plight is not well-publicized. And because of their professional status, they have fallen in the cracks of the government’s cash aid program,” Recto added.  “Theirs is the portrait of the Filipino middle class in this time of crisis.”

Recto said that this number was obtained during a senate hearing where Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Briones and Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) chair Popoy de Vera attended.  According to Briones, the income of around 263,000 teachers in private-run elementary and high schools are affected when classes were suspended due to the lockdown measures.

Out of these, Briones said that 50,000 teachers in basic education classes are in danger of losing their jobs.  The number was initially at 300,000 but other schools have assured that salaries of the teachers would be paid for the whole year.

De Vera on the other hand said that 36,000 part-time faculty staffers are affected, while another 17,000 part-time instructors in state universities had their salaries disrupted.

However, the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) told senators that 77,000 private college and university faculty members are affected by a no-work, no-pay scheme by the campus management.

But industry association COCOPEA, in a report to the Senate, estimates that about 77,000 private “higher education institutions” faculty are affected because of the “no work, no pay” rule or the imposition of reduced pay by owners.

Briones said that they tried to enlist the affected teachers in the social amelioration program (SAP), but it was also short of funding.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, work except for essential frontline industries was suspended.  However, this has left several workers — including teachers on a work-for-pay scheme, without income through the lockdown.

Recto urged the government to place its attention on the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on the educational system, as it is also a huge industry.  What the administration can do is to release earmarked funds for schools, or to include affected educational institutions in the Small Business Wage Subsidies (SBWS) program.

“Education is one sector which has a large client base, about 34 million – students, teachers, non-academic employees and the auxiliary services like school buses, uniform makers, food, boarding houses, and transportation,” Recto noted.