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| Photo credits: Manila Bulletin |
MANILA BULLETIN NEWS – Public school teachers may no longer have to worry about having to shoulder the costs of instructional materials they use in classrooms.
Rep. Julieta R. Cortuna (Party-list, A TEACHER) has filed a bill, which seeks to grant all public school teachers of basic and higher education a Php 3,000-monthly allowance for instructional materials.
Cortuna said included in the grant of instructional materials allowance are those who are teaching in the alternative learning system of the Department of Education.
Under the bill, the amount provided as instructional materials’ allowance for public school teachers be subject to regular adjustment every five years.
Cortuna said it was not new for anyone to hear that public school teachers were underpaid.
“But what is not known to most of us is the fact that the meager pay that teachers received is further reduced by the cost of instructional materials that they have to dig out of their pockets,” she said.
The lady solon said instructional materials come in the form of test papers, instruction module presentation, charts for clarity of explanation, maps, and other necessary tools that regularly cost to produce.
“These instructional materials can only be used for every student or every class session to enhance the teaching-learning interaction,” Cortuna added.
The party-list lawmaker said disregarding the need to provide instructional materials’ allowance for public school teachers would lead to reduced pay for the lowly paid teachers.
She further said not providing the teachers with allowance for instructional materials would also raise the specter of worsening the already poor quality of education that public school students receive.