THE DEPARTMENT of Education will give additional benefits to teachers in lieu of salary hike, the agency’s spokesperson, Michael Poa, said.

These non-basic wage benefits had been proposed to President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr., Poa said.

“He has instructed for that to be looked into, na ‘yung mga nonbasic wage benefits, tingnan natin kung ano ‘yung mga pwede nating madagdag para sa omento ng mga take-home pay ng mga teachers,” he said.

The education official said that there are factors to consider before the implementation of a wage hike.

“We have to balance those things, kasi if we increase the basic wage of teachers, if we make it too high, it will really affect the private sector kasi either lilipat ‘yung mga teachers in the private sector to the government or baka hindi kayanin ng private sector tapatan, baka magsara ‘yung private sector,” Poa said.

“That’s why what we will be doing is we will be looking into nonbasic wage benefits that we can give them para naman madagdagan ‘yung take-home nila.”