Saturday, September 29, 2007 Oledan: Tenets By Radzini Oledan Slice of Life
AS THE human capital theory puts it forward, the economic development of a nation is a function of the quality of its education. In other words, the more and better educated a people are, the greater the chances of economic development.
The above is not possible with the situation of teachers nationwide are in now. A recent study found that teachers in the country receive very low pay. A teacher's gross basic salary amounts to only P9,464.50.
In the National Capital Region, a private school teacher's monthly salary is only P6,000 on the average and their take home pay amounts to only P4, 967.02. In some other regions, teachers take home only P2,200 a month.
Some would blame it on the deductions from the teacher's meager salary. A previous survey conducted by the Senate Committee on Education revealed that 96 percent of respondents received only half of their monthly salaries due to deductions. A total of 25,584 teachers said their pay is reduced by more than 50 percent.
Because their pay can hardly meet their families' daily needs, teachers are compelled to borrow from private lenders.
"In 2001 alone, unpaid debts incurred by 300,000 public school teachers amounted to P10 billion. These private lenders, numbering 112, were then accredited by the DepeEd and impose a 36-108 percent interest."
The 10 leading private lenders earned a total of P5.5 billion or 74 percent of the P7.5 billion deducted from teachers' salaries.
Some people in authority were found to have connived with loan sharks to take advantage of the teachers' desperation. It receives a 2 percent share of teachers' debt payments, and collects this through salary deductions. The remaining amount allegedly goes to the Provident Fund, which is supposedly intended for teachers' assistance programs. The status of this fund is unclear.
There are also cases where salary deductions for debt payments continue even if the teachers have already paid off their debts, all because of poor system of record keeping.
Health services and benefits for the overworked teachers are also far from sufficient. Neither are the teachers' working conditions desirable.
Respondents to a poll of teachers say that they teach in classrooms that have no ceilings (25 percent), no proper lighting (27 percent), poor ventilation (27 percent), no electricity (55 percent), no running water (84 percent) and no toilets (62 percent).
Owing to the lack of teachers, they are forced to handle very large classes (up to 80 students). Due to the insufficient number of classrooms, many teachers teach in the shade of trees, in gyms, in parking lots, along corridors and other places not conducive to teaching and learning.
