INCREASING the salary of public school teachers may trigger the closure of private schools, Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio said.

Duterte-Carpio told lawmakers at the House of Representatives that more private school teachers may transfer to the public sector if their counterparts are given a pay raise.

She was asked by House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro of ACT Teachers party-list if she favors increasing the salary of public school teachers.

“We presented the data to the Department of Labor and Employment…the comparison of salaries between the private educational institutions and public schools,” Duterte-Carpio said.

“Clearly, there is wide disparity. The opinion of DOLE is that the market standard is the private sector,” she added.

The DepEd chief said that a pay increase might result in the closure of private schools.

“There could be mass migration from private to public schools which we are actually seeing now. Nawawalan sila ng teachers, lumilipat sa DepEd. It will force more closures of private schools,” Duterte-Carpio said.

Castro said that past administrations have issued similar statements.

“We should not compare the salary of public teachers to the private sector but under our Constitution, it should be based on cost of living and consumer price index,” she said.