A worker gets on with her hob at the Alliance of Concerned Teachers’ main office in Quezon City. This photo was taken in January 2019. (File photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — A group of private school teachers has asked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to declare during his State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday a minimum salary standard for their sector equivalent to the entry-level pay of their public school counterparts.
“We have always been used by the government as an excuse to counter the calls of public school teachers for a salary increase as such may purportedly cause the [shutdown] of many private schools,” said Jonathan Geronimo, secretary general of Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Private Schools.
He stressed that the solution was “not to deprive public school teachers of decent salaries but to raise the salaries of private school teachers to be at par with our colleagues in the public sector.”
According to a study conducted by the group, more than six out of every 10 private school teachers were receiving a monthly pay lower than the P27,000 entry-level salary of public school teachers.
ACT Private Schools said the online survey that was conducted from June 5 to 30 had 103 teacher-respondents from 74 private schools nationwide.
Based on the results, the monthly pay of 24.3 percent of respondents was lower compared to workers in Metro Manila who earn a daily minimum wage of P620.
“It is important to note that many of the respondents are not beginning teachers, as about 37 percent of them have been teaching for 10 years or longer. This only goes to show that entry-level salaries in these private schools are even more pitiful,” the group said.
Geronimo said that private school teachers deserve to get the same pay as their counterparts in public schools since they perform the same duties and make the same valuable contributions to developing the youth.
“For the longest time, our private school teachers have been enduring such an abject situation due to the excessive deregulation of the private school system and the lack of protection and support from the government.
It is high time for the government to make proactive steps to improve our conditions,” he said.
House Secretary General Reginald Velasco, meanwhile, told reporters that Radio Television Malacañang, not Presidential Adviser for Creative Communications and film director Paul Soriano, would be directing the Sona.