THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers-National Capital Region Union trooped to the Department of Education central office on Valentine’s Day to bare teachers’ “state of the heart” and demand “substantive and swift” to their concerns.

The group urged the agency to upgrade teachers’ salaries and reduce their non-teaching duties.

Carrying big emoji hearts — a broken heart for failed salary increase promise; a heart tired of waiting for delayed benefits; a heart chained to overwork; and a heart thirsting for the government’s care and attention to dramatized their plight — the teachers formed the characters “SG 15” with the flowers their received from their students to indicate that the government’s love for teachers can best be demonstrated by upgrading the entry-level salary from salary grade 11 to salary grade 15.

“Secretary Duterte promised to address the impacts of loan payments to our net take-home pay, but this does not resolve the fact that teachers’ pay are not of liveable levels in the first place. Nagtaas na ang presyo ng tinapay kahapon, nagbabadya ang malaking pagtaas ng singil sa LRT, hindi naampat ng gobyerno ang pagsirit ng inflation, what we need is substantial salary increase,” Ruby Bernardo, the group’s president, said.

“She also committed to improving our benefits. Madam Secretary, baka pwedeng unahin na pong mabayaran ang mga utang na benepisyo ng DepEd sa amin gaya ng 77 araw na sobrang trabaho noong SY 2020-2021, dagdag na kompensasyon sa hanggang dalawang linggong pinahabang trabaho noong Hulyo 2022, kulang na service credits sa enrolment at Brigada Eskwela noong Agosto 2022, ang Performance-based Bonus para sa taong 2021, kulang na Service Recognition Incentive 2022, at ang hindi pa rin naibibigay na one-time rice assistance,” Bernardo added.