MANILA, Philippines — Opposition Senator Leila de Lima is seeking better welfare for public teachers by instituting a revised Magna Carta that is apt for their present needs.
De Lima filed proposed Senate Bill No. 2497, repealing for the purpose the outdated Republic Act No. 4670 or the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers.
“Teaching is a noble yet thankless profession. The need to preserve the integrity of our educational institutions coincides with the need to ensure the protection of our teachers. This arguably begins by revisiting and revising a decades-old law that has failed to adequately respond to the changing of times,” the senator said in a statement on Sunday.
She also cited the worsening “crisis in Philippine education.”
“This is exemplified by the lack of computers and other tools in public schools despite being necessitated by the digital age, and also by a shortfall in the number of public school teachers,” De Lima said.
She also stressed that COVID-19 further burdened the educational system as the country is the last in the world to reopen schools for face-to-face classes since the pandemic
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“Teachers were not spared from this ordeal as inadequate government support led them having to use their own resources for school-related expenses, especially for distance learning needs like laptops, phones, printers, and internet connection,” De Lima pointed out.
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“With an education system that is ‘faulty to begin with, haphazardly implemented remote learning setup’ resulted in overworked and underpaid teachers, on their own, to fend for themselves and to wiggle through the struggles,” the senator continued.
Thus, her measure, if passed into law, will ensure that teachers will not be required to use their personal money for items or activities related to their performance of duties.
The proposal also aims to “provide for a gradual progression from a minimum to a maximum salary by means of regular increments, granted automatically after three (3) years.”
READ: Since the ’80s, teachers still overworked, underpaid
Furthermore De Lima emphasized the importance of addressing the country’s educational system.
“Ang pagpapahalaga sa edukasyon ay pangangalaga sa kinabukasan ng ating bayan (Making education important is a way to take care of the country’s future),” she noted.
“Democracies are only as strong as their voters. If we fail to educate our children properly, they will fall prey to the machinations of abusive politicians and foreign interests, and all the freedoms we fought for and achieved as a democratic Filipino nation will fade into extinction,” De Lima added.
Below is the complete document: