INQUIRER PHOTO/GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
MANILA, Philippines — Public school teachers may now look forward to receiving additional pay for teaching assignments beyond their regular six-hour daily workload as the Department of Education (DepEd) revised its guidelines after years of clamor from teachers.
According to DepEd Order No. 005, series of 2024, issued on April 29, all DepEd-employed teachers engaged in classroom teaching on a full-time basis, under permanent, provisional or substitute rank in all public elementary and high schools, are entitled to receive “overload pay” equivalent to 25 percent of their salary.
The order said the granting of extra compensation was an acknowledgment of teachers’ welfare provided under Republic Act No. 4670, or the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers, enacted in 1966.
READ: House bill proposes P50,000 as teachers’ monthly pay
“Any teacher engaged in actual classroom instruction shall not be required to render more than six hours of actual classroom teaching a day, which shall be so scheduled as to give him time for the preparation and correction of exercises and other work incidental to his normal teaching duties,” according to Section 13 of RA 4670.
The law, however, also states that “where the exigencies of the service so require, any teacher may be required to render more than six hours but not exceeding eight hours of actual classroom teaching a day upon payment of additional compensation at the same rate as his regular remuneration plus at least 25 percent of his basic pay.”
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) described the DepEd order as a “victory,” noting how they have long fought for the overload compensation of teachers since the enactment of the Magna Carta.
“This response from the DepEd is a huge step to address the labor issues and concerns that we in the ACT have long raised,” Vladimer Quetua, ACT chair, said in a statement to the Inquirer.
“It is only right and timely for the DepEd to properly compensate teachers who work beyond the six-hour [teaching that they need to render],” he said.
Public school teachers in the country receive a monthly pay of between P27,000 and P63,997, depending on rank.
Latest guidelines
Under the latest DepEd order, teachers are mandated to render six hours of actual classroom teaching in a day, with the remaining two hours dedicated to “teacher ancillary tasks” that include lesson plan making and checking of papers, among others.
They may do these ancillary tasks inside or outside the school premises, according to the DepEd.
This rule is also applicable to Master Teachers, and in case they are designated as class advisers, their tasks as advisers will be part of their six-hour actual classroom teaching.
Class advising duties will be treated as a teaching load and will be equivalent to an hour per day, five hours a week, or during the prescribed time for the homeroom guidance program.
On reporting and documentation, the DepEd order states that “no teacher shall be required to submit documentary evidence or accomplishment reports on how the two hours of ancillary tasks are spent outside school premises.”
But the DepEd, citing a “general rule,” said only teachers in schools with a shortage of teachers would be eligible for the overload pay.
“All teachers shall render the prescribed number of actual classroom teaching hours before they may be assigned a teaching overload,” the order said. “The specialization of teachers must be a prime consideration for the school head in assigning overload.”
If a teacher is designated as teacher in charge (TIC), a designation considered as a school head, he or she should be relieved of teaching and other related duties and must perform fully the function of a school head, the DepEd said in the order.
“However, in the exigency of service, TICs may be given teaching loads on the condition that all teachers in the school have been assigned the maximum teaching overload of two hours,” it added.
The TICs’ teaching load will be part of their regular work hours and any work performed beyond their regular duties should be compensated accordingly, the agency said.
Contractual positions
But teachers under contractual positions, which are funded by the local school board, are not eligible to receive teaching overload compensation.
The current basic wage of public school teachers at entry-level is around P27,000 a month.
Under the Salary Standardization Law (SSL), teachers classified from Teacher I to III positions fall under Salary Grades (SG) 11, 12 and 13 and they can earn at least P27,000, P29,165, and P31,320, respectively.
Teachers under the Master Teacher I position fall under SG 18, which, under the current tranche of the SSL, amounts to at least P46,725 in monthly pay.
For Master Teacher II, which falls under SG 19, they earn P51,357; and for Master Teacher III, which falls under SG 20, they earn P57,347.
Those who qualify for the Master Teacher IV position fall under SG 21 and earn over P63,997.
In February, House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro led the Makabayan bloc in filing House Bill No. 9920, which seeks to raise the minimum monthly salary for teachers to P50,000. —WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH