BULACAN Sixth District Representative Salvador Pleyto Sr. is pushing for a measure that would upgrade the salary grade of public Special Education (SPED) teachers to Salary Grade 22.

Pleyto’s House Bill No. 5890, or the proposed Special Education Teachers Salary Upgrade Act, aims to amend provisions of the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers.

In his explanatory note, Pleyto emphasized the vital role of SPED teachers in the Philippine education system.

“These educators are the cornerstone of the government’s commitment to inclusive education, as mandated by the Constitution and various international agreements,” he said.

The lawmaker stressed that the current salary structure, which often places entry-level SPED teachers at a significantly lower salary grade than what is being proposed, fails to adequately recognize the specialized training, emotional labor, and immense complexity involved in their daily tasks.

“SPED teachers require highly technical skills, including individualized curriculum development, behavior management techniques, use of specialized assistive technologies, and multidisciplinary coordination with therapists and parents—expertise that far exceeds the requirements of a general education teacher,” Pleyto said.

He noted that the teacher-to-student ratio in SPED classes must necessarily be smaller, yet the individual attention required for each learner with special education needs (LSEN) translates to a heavier workload and higher levels of professional and emotional stress.

Pleyto added that inadequate compensation contributes to the high attrition rate among qualified SPED teachers and makes it difficult to recruit new professionals into this critical field, thereby compromising the quality of SPED services nationwide.

The bill seeks to address this long-standing inequity by upgrading the minimum salary grade of all public SPED teachers to Salary Grade 22.