Hardship Allowance for Teachers Assigned in Remote Areas Pressed
ACT-CIS Partylist Rep. Eric Go Yap pressing for a bill granting hardship allowance to teachers assigned in remote areas.
House Bill 10523 or the proposed Teachers for the Barrios Act, Yap said the Covid19 clearly showed lapses in the system, especially in providing accessible quality education.
“Our teachers bridged and filled those gaps. Through producing and printing modules amid a state of emergency and personally delivering the same to far-flung areas, they were somehow able to heed to the immediate educational needs of their students,” Yap said in his explanatory note.
Yap said that the current system is not perfect, stating the hardship of online learning becomes plain as it is expensive and not as effective.
He added that teachers assigned in remote areas go through extreme lengths in looking after their students.
On the measure, all teachers assigned to far-flung areas will be entitled to a monthly hardship allowance equivalent to double the total expenses the teacher will incur every month in additional public transportation from the nearest capital town or urban center of the school where he/she is assigned, assuming educator goes back and forth to school daily.
The Department of Education, together with the Department of the Interior and Local Government shall issue the implementing rules and regulations of the act.
