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About Teachers’ Month

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National Teachers’ Month kicked off Monday with progressive groups trooping to the House of Representatives to call for salary upgrades and the doubling of the 2023 education budget, along with pressing for additional compensation for work outside regular duties, provision of laptops and internet allowance.

“Our teachers are the lifeline of our education but we ourselves are on the verge of breaking down. Our salaries cannot amply support our families while we are also forced to spend out-of-pocket for our teaching and classroom needs,” said Vladimer Quetua, chair of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT).

He reiterated that teachers’ salaries have “long [been] left behind” by other government workers like police officers and nurses, adding that their workload only gets heavier by the day yet they receive scant support from the government for their teaching needs.

“Our situation of being underworked, underpaid and undersupported is a major roadblock to education recovery,” he said.

“For education to recover from the learning crisis, uplifting the conditions of our teachers is core and essential,” he added.

The teachers’ group said the will take advantage of the celebration of the National Teachers’ Month that will conclude on October 5, also World Teachers’ Day, to press their demands to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

“Mr. President, you have promised during your electoral campaign that you will take care of the welfare of teachers and education. We are close to the end of your first 100 days in office, we urge you to fulfill these game-changing measures for the sake of our learners,” Quetua said.

National Teachers’ Month gives an opportunity for the country and its leaders to listen and look at the plight of teachers, who have long struggled to educate the nation’s youth effectively and at the same time make a decent living. The police got their time in the limelight during the time of Rodrigo Duterte, health workers were thrust into the spotlight when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, but the country’s teachers have yet to be given the attention and support they deserve, considering their role in the nation’s development.

National Teachers’ Month and the upcoming World Teachers’ Day give our leaders the opportunity to reflect and recognize the country’s failures as far as this noble vocation is involved. After that is achieved, the monumental task of righting the many wrongs and sins of omission has to begin, all over again, hopefully for good this time.*

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