Batangas solon seeks supply allowance for public teachers

Deputy Speaker and Batangas Rep. Vilma Santos-Recto wants to give the country’s 840,000 public school teachers supply allowance.

She lamented that teachers resort to using their personal money to buy teaching materials, such as chalks, erasers, forms and other classroom supplies.

“Aside from spending for their personal and family needs, teachers also have to shell out some more money from their own pockets for the materials they use in teaching,” she said in filing House Bill No. 3449 or the proposed “Teaching Supplies Allowance Act.”

She said the government must promote and improve the economic status of teachers and assist them in providing quality education to their students.

Under the proposed measure, a public school teacher shall receive a cash allowance of P10,000 per school year.

In the first year of effectivity of the bill, once passed, an allowance of P3,500 per teacher per school year shall be charged against the current appropriation of the Department of Education, while the additional P6,500 shall be charged against any available funds and/or savings of the DepEd.

“Thereafter, the amount of P10,000 per teacher per school year shall be included in the DepEd budget for teaching supplies allowance under the General Appropriations Act,” the Batangas lawmaker said.

Despite an increase in the budget allocation for DepEd, Santos-Recto said the cash allowance provided to teachers just translates to a P16 subsidy per day.

“This is relatively insufficient in assisting classroom teachers to deliver informative lectures and stimulating class discussions to the country’s 22.1 million public school students,” she said.