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Friday, March 29, 2024

Recto: Increase teachers’ chalk allowance

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Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto has urged the Duterte administration to “bring to the internet age” the public school teacher’s annual “chalk allowance” that translates into a measly budget of only P7 daily.

Recto said the budget should be increased from P1,500 to P5,000 annually.

“Chalk allowance” is the popular term for the cash given to teachers at the start of the school year for the purchase of chalk, pens, erasers, paper and other school supplies.

Recto said an additional P2.7 billion will be needed to increase the allowance to P5,000 a year for 770,656 public school teachers.

“It is affordable and the resulting total allocation of P3.8 billion will just be two-thirds of one percent of the Department of Education budget,” he said.

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“This will allow teachers to expand their shopping list, to include computer and internet-use supplies, like USBs and even an occasional load for online research. In this digitized age, there are computer-related supplies which the teacher uses, and these must be considered in computing the supplies the teacher needs,” Recto added.

He likened teaching materials used by teachers to ammunition issued to soldiers.

“If teachers are the frontliners in the war against illiteracy, then they must be given enough supplies to perform their mission,” Recto said.

The senator has already filed Senate Bill No. 812, which seeks to institutionalize periodic increases in teaching supplies allowance.

In the bill’s explanatory note, Recto assailed the P7 subsidy per day as “insufficient in assisting classroom teachers to deliver informative lectures and stimulating class discussions to the country’s 21- million public school students.”

“It is time for the next installment of increase,” he said.

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