It has been observed that recently, more and more teachers are resigning from their positions in DepEd to teach abroad. The total head-turner here is that it seems DepEd is not worried about this situation. In fact, just last week, over 500 teachers attended an orientation for teaching in the U.S., somewhere in the Visayas. According to a reliable source, these teachers were not novices; most were ranked between Teacher III and Master Teacher II, and some were even Principals. This was just in the Visayas area alone. What about Luzon and Mindanao? The thought here is that they are already seasoned, caliber teachers and are not hesitating to leave DepEd. The main reason for this brain drain: salary.

This is actually a big problem in the education sector now that there is Brain Drain in the country. In the previous years, if teachers left DepEd to teach in other countries, higher officials would only say, “there are many on the waiting list who can replace them.” But hey, is that really a good defensive answer? The truth is that we don’t consider the possibilities that, yes, many new teachers can replace those who leave, but the reality is those who leave are the best and have already established their roots in their field. Caliber as we say, to be exact. Imagine if all the teachers this school year were new ones, can they transition that smoothly? Come to think of it. It is becoming clear that DepEd is only a practice ground for these teachers before they leave everything behind. This is the main reason why we cannot achieve quality education here in our country.

To the leaders, you are not blind, but you are pretending to be one. If you really want quality education, then make the first move on the teachers first. You know very well that teachers will be of quality when they are properly motivated. So, instead of allowing them to migrate to other places to teach, why not focus on their long-time salary increase? This is the only thing that will bind these teachers to our country. If we work to survive, then we need a good source of salary, and this is what our teachers have wanted from the beginning. Their primary motivation is their one-time salary increase across the board, not by tranche.

This is only the beginning of brain drain in the country. It is funny to note that the government aims to create quality education but in the first place, it is not giving quality remuneration to its teachers. The Philippines educational system is so corrupt that it needs to be completely revamped. It is only in the Philippines where teachers are asked to buy things for their classroom beautification and chip in amounts of money for everything. Now, tell me, are we not ashamed of this disgrace we caused to our own great teachers? – Avril | Helpline PH