SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian aims to increase teachers’ salaries to uplift their morale and motivate more students to join the country’s teaching force.

Gatchalian shared his proposal on how to increase teachers’ salaries, especially at the entry level. The lawmaker proposed to raise the salary grade of Teacher I from Salary Grade 11 to either Salary Grade 13 or 14.

Currently, a Teacher I with a Salary Grade 11 gets P25,439 under the third tranche of the Salary Standardization Law V.

If the salary grade of Teacher I is raised to Salary Grade 13, the starting pay would be P29,798.

This would require an additional budget of P58.6 billion.

If the salary is raised to Salary Grade 14, the pay would be P32,321. This would require an additional P92.1 billion.

Under the fourth tranche of the Salary Standardization Law which will be effective next year, Step 1 of Salary Grade 13 will be equivalent to P31,320 while Step 1 of Salary Grade 14 will amount to P33,843.

“Isa sa ating mga adbokasiya ay pataasin ang moral ng ating mga guro at hikayatin ang mga estudyante natin na kumuha ng kurso sa pagtuturo. Isang paraan diyan ay taasan po ‘yung sweldo,” Gatchalian said.

He said that the entry-level pay for Filipino teachers is lower than those in other ASEAN countries such as Indonesia (P66,099), Singapore (P60,419), Malaysia (P44,496), Thailand (P37,152), and Vietnam (P36,115).

“Ang guro po ang pinakamahalagang sangkap pagdating sa sektor ng edukasyon dahil direkta silang nagbibigay ng kaalaman sa ating mga mag-aaral. Importante na nasusuportahan natin ang kanilang mga pangangailangan at napapangalagaan ang kanilang kapakanan,” Gatchalian said.