THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers urged the Department of Education to look into the number of teachers who opt to work abroad because of low pay.

The group issued the statement after Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio said that raising public school teachers’ salaries may trigger the migration of teachers to public schools.

“Parami nang parami sa mga kabaro namin ang nangingibang-bayan na o nag-aaplay ng trabaho sa Vietnam, Thailand, China, Europa at iba pa dahil napakahirap maging guro sa bayan natin. Hindi makabuhay ng pamilya ang P25,000 hanggang P30,000 buwanang sweldo ng 92 percent ng public school teachers. Kargo pa namin ang maraming gastusin sa pagtuturo at mga pangangailangan sa klasrum kaya lubog kami sa utang. Iyan ang katotohanan na dapat harapin ng ating gobyerno,” Vladimer Quetua, the group’s chairperson, said.

“In no time, we will be losing the best of our teachers both in the public and private sector if the government does not remedy our situation quickly. Parehong underpaid ang mga guro sa publiko at pribado,” Quetua added.

“Leaving their own families and the Filipino students that they vowed to serve is a difficult decision that teachers make, but the government is leaving us with no other choice, especially with such stance of the DepEd being unsupportive of our call for salary upgrading,” he said.

“How can the DepEd and the DOLE say that the market standards for teachers’ salaries is that of the private sector’s when 75 percent of basic education teachers in the Philippines are hired by the government? The government, being the biggest employer of teachers is well in the position and has the responsibility to set the teachers’ salaries at decent levels. In fact, it should also subsidize the salaries of teachers in small private schools which truly have no capacity to pay decent salaries to their teachers’ if it sees these private schools as partners in education delivery,” Quetua added.