House to let tutors retire at 60

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

The committee on civil service and professional regulation voted recently in favor of House Bill No. 4501 authored by 1 BAP party-list Rep. Silvestre Bello III to amend the Revised Government Service Insurance Act of 1997.

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

The bill will next be debated on the plenary floor on second reading.

Amendments

HB 4501 aims to amend Sections 13(b) and 13-A of Republic Act No. 8291, which sets the mandatory and optional retirement ages for government employees, except for those in the military and police services.

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

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

Time to prepare

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

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

He noted that some 14,000 pass the Licensure Examinations for Teachers each year but most cannot get teaching jobs because older teachers are still in the classrooms.–DJ Yap