Teachers hold Zumba protest over low pay

PROMOTING ‘A HEALTHY BODY BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENT LEFT US BEHIND’ | Public school teachers stage a protest via a Zumba workout on Sunday morning at the Department of Education’s Manila Division Office, as they called anew for a salary upgrade and the release of delayed benefits. (Photo courtesy of the Manila Public School Teachers Association)

MANILA, Philippines — Public school teachers held a Zumba workout in Manila on Sunday morning to develop “a sound mind in a sound body” in preparation for the challenges posed by the full return to in-person classes and their continued fight for wage hikes and other benefits.

“This is our contribution to the collective call to uplift the conditions of our teachers through upgrading our entry-level salaries to Salary Grade 15 or about P35,000 a month,” said Louie Zabala, president of the Manila Public School Teachers Association (MPSTA).

“We also need to promote a healthy body because, in the aspect of health, the government left us behind,” Zabala told the Inquirer, recalling how they did not get a P500 medical allowance last year. In 2020, the allowance was distributed on Oct. 5, World Teachers Day, along with another P1,000 incentive.

Zabala, who joined the Zumba workout held on the grounds of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) Manila Division Office, said they were “extremely sad” about the lack of support from the DepEd central office about their demand for higher pay.

‘Death sentence’

“We are loaded with too much work but we can’t feel the support of the department to the teachers who are already getting sick because of excessive workload,” Zabala said.

During a House committee on appropriations hearing on DepEd’s proposed P710-billion budget for 2023, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte said that increasing the pay of public school teachers could result in the transfer of their private school counterparts to the government.

“There could be mass migration from private to public schools which we are actually seeing now,” she said, adding, “They are losing their teachers, who are transferring to [public schools]. It will force more closures of private schools.”

Under Republic Act No. 11466 or the Salary Standardization Law of 2019 signed by her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, the entry-level salary of teachers for this year is P25,439 for Salary Grade 11.

Under the last tranche of monthly pay increases to be implemented under the law, the minimum salary for a Teacher I next year will be P27,000.

‘Fine-tuning’

“While DepEd denies our demand for salary upgrading, its promise of easing our workload is all talk,” Zabala said.

He likened the learning recovery program of DepEd to a “death sentence” as they were being forced to perform excessive teaching duties on top of other administrative tasks.

“One month into the school year and our conditions have only worsened … we cannot feel the so-called gratitude and value with our situation like this,” Zabala said.

Michael Poa, DepEd spokesperson, said earlier that the department, for now, was looking into possible “nonwage benefits” or allowances, as well as the hiring of more nonteaching personnel to ease the administrative tasks of teachers.

At a recent press conference, Poa said DepEd would launch a “workload balancing tool” to address the issue of excessive teaching workload as well as “longer hours of teaching worse than the prepandemic situation.”

“The tool went through the management committee already and we are just fine-tuning it but definitely within the year, we will release it,” he added.

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