House body OKs bill lowering retirement age of public school teachers

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A proposal to lower the mandatory retirement age of public school teachers from 65 to 60 years old has been approved at the committee level in the House of Representatives.

The committee on civil service and professional regulation voted in favor of House Bill 4501 authored by 1BAP Party-list Rep. Silvestre Bello III amending sections of the Revised Government Service Insurance Act of 1997.

Besides lowering the compulsory retirement age, the measure also lowers the optional retirement age from 60 to 55 years old, “so government mentors can enjoy the remaining years of their lives or explore other pursuits,” according to the author.

The bill was put to a vote at a recent hearing before Congress adjourned session for its summer break. The next step is for the bill to be debated on the plenary floor on second reading.

HB 4501 will amend in particular Sections 13(b) and 13-A of Republic Act 8291, which sets the mandatory and optional retirement ages for government employees, except for those in the military and police service.

The Philippine Public School Teachers, Public Services Labor Independent Confederation, and the Philippine Government Employees’ Association have endorsed the measure.

Bello, a deputy minority leader, said the proposed law would open up teaching slots in the public school system for younger teachers “who have the energy and the mental agility to prepare lesson plans for larger classes, especially when the curriculum is changing so often.”

“With longer working hours and larger class sizes than our neighbor countries, these older teachers are unlikely to have the time, energy and opportunity to have other pursuits, or equip themselves with higher skills to be abreast with modern teaching methods and technology, or at least to prepare for alternative livelihoods to cross over to when they retire,” he said.

While almost 100 percent of elementary teachers in Malaysia and Indonesia are below 60 years old, 15 percent or about 62,000 elementary school teachers in the Philippines are over 60 years old, Bello said.

He also noted that about 14,000 newly licensed teachers every year would pass the Licensure Examinations for Teachers (LET) but most of them would not get teaching jobs because senior teachers were still holding the posts.

More retirees mean higher test scores for students, according to Bello. He said research data in the United States point to the fact that early retirement of teachers led to higher scores for students.

“One potential reason for this is that new and younger teachers not only came on board with newer and more effective teaching practices but were more energetic in experimenting and finding other methodologies to match their students’ aptitude levels,” he said.

Lastly, he said more retirees mean more investments as they can invest their pensions in other passions where they can become employers and generate employment to the jobless.