Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto is proposing to increase the allowance of teaching supplies by 185 percent from the current P3,500 to P10,000 allocated by the Department of Education per teacher for a school year.
Recto said Senate Bill No. 42 seeks to institutionalize the grant of a Teaching Supplies Allowance for the 840,000 public school teachers nationwide.
The DepEd chief, Recto said, shall be mandated to conduct a periodic review of the Teaching Supplies Allowance.
“With this additional allowance, the burden on public school teachers will be alleviated and their working conditions will certainly improve,” he added.
According to Recto, public school teachers, who receive salaries that are not commensurate with the volume of their work and responsibilities, have to shell out their own money to buy the materials they use.
Although the DepEd had increased the allowance of teaching supplies from P2,500 in 2018 to P3,500 in 2019, Recto said the current allowance translated to only P16 of subsidy per day.
He said the present allowance is insufficient in assisting classroom teachers to deliver informative lectures for 22.1-million public school students.