DepEd Evaluates Potential Salary Increase for Teachers Amid Bonus Delay Concerns
The Department of Education (DepEd) is actively exploring the possibility of a salary increase for teachers, a topic that has gained significant attention recently. DepEd’s spokesperson, Michael Poa, emphasized that the department is not in a position to independently adjust or augment teachers’ wages, given that they are governed by the salary standardization law.
Currently, the department is leveraging the expertise of third-party professionals to assess if the teachers’ salaries are competitive in their own right, without drawing comparisons to other industries. “We aim to have a definitive answer to this, and we are also looking ahead. We hope to determine from this expert-led study whether there’s a need for salary increments in the coming years. We also want to ascertain the appropriate rate of increase, taking into account inflation rates,” Poa stated during a Palace briefing.
He further added, “Once the study is in our hands, we will be in a position to make evidence-based decisions on whether there’s a need to raise the salary or not.”
In related news, there have been reports of some teachers not receiving their performance-based bonus for 2021, despite the release of approximately P950 million in funds for this purpose. Poa reassured teachers that they would receive the bonus after the processing period of “two to three weeks.”
He clarified, “It’s not a delay. It’s part of the process. There’s a need for reconciliation because we’re talking about a bonus for the year 2021, so we have to ensure that the employees who will receive it are from 2021.”
He further explained the need for reconciliation, “If you check the records now, they won’t match because the number of employees, the newly hired, and those who have left, have changed. That’s why there’s an ongoing reconciliation.”
This ongoing discussion about teachers’ salary increase and the delay in performance-based bonuses is a critical issue that the Department of Education is addressing.
