MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) is seeking an additional P1.5 billion for teachers’ incentives after these proposed allocations had not been included in the 2021 National Expenditure Program (NEP).
During the hearing of the Senate committee on basic education, arts, and culture, Education Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla bared that the P1,000 World Teachers’ Day incentive given to teachers as well as the P500 annual medical examination benefit are both “not anymore existing in the 2021 NEP.”
In total, P1 billion would have been allocated for the World Teachers’ Day bonus while P500 million would have been allocated for the annual medical examination for the benefit of teachers in the country, said Sevilla.
“These two benefits are not anymore existing in the 2021 NEP. This was not considered by the Department of Budget and Management [DBM] for our 2021 budget,” Sevilla told lawmakers.
“We have been giving this for two years already starting in the 2019 GAA (General Appropriations Act) and in the 2020 GAA,” she added.
According to Sevilla, for the past two years, the funding for the said benefits for teachers only appeared after the NEP.
“I think the reason why DBM was not able to consider this in the 2021 NEP is the reason that these are congressional initiatives. So we would be needing your support that these can be considered,” Sevilla said.
Meanwhile, Sevilla said that the said benefits for this year will be given to the eligible teachers this month until October.
Sevilla earlier said that the DepEd initially requested for a P1.1 trillion budget from the DBM for 2021. However, the budget department only granted them P605 billion.
DepEd has the second-highest budget allocation for next year among the different government agencies, just behind the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).