Tell it to SunStar: 2025 gains prove power of unity

By Teachers’ Dignity Coalition national chairman Benjo Basas

The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition characterized 2025 as a “fruitful and victorious” year for teachers’ advocacy, urging colleagues nationwide to make 2026 a more decisive year through a stronger and more united teachers’ movement.

The gains of 2025 prove that when teachers are organized and persistent, real reforms are possible. These victories were not handed to us; they were won through collective action and sustained pressure.

Key achievements in 2025 included refinements in the Expanded Career Progression Program; the restoration of the Performance-Based Bonus; the continued release of the Service Recognition Incentive and Productivity Enhancement Incentives; the grant of the P7,000 medical allowance for state workers; improved benefits for teachers performing election duties as concrete welfare gains; and clearer policies on Aral and teachers’ working hours. Teachers also secured the reversion of the school calendar to the June–March cycle, a long-standing demand raised by teachers and parents nationwide.

Returning to the June–March school calendar corrected a policy that ignored classroom realities and the lived experience of teachers, learners and their communities.

The most tangible and widely felt reform in 2025 was the nationwide imposition of the Health and Wellness Break for teachers during the mid-year break, replacing the monotonous, repetitive and often counterproductive in-service training.

This is a long-overdue acknowledgment that teachers are human beings, not machines, and that their physical and mental health matter. For the first time, rest and well-being were institutionalized, not treated as a privilege.

2025 also marked a shift in how teachers’ voices are treated in policymaking spaces.

There is now greater recognition of teachers’ perspectives within the Department of Education (DepEd) under Secretary Sonny Angara, and even in the Congress. That recognition is reflected in DepEd policies as well as in the higher budget allocation for the education sector for 2026.

Teachers are entering 2026 with clear and urgent demands, led by a call for a P15,000 across-the-board salary increase.

The message from teachers is unmistakable: salary increase is the top priority.

Other key demands include automatic or longevity-based promotion, free hospitalization and comprehensive health coverage, humane Government Service Insurance System policies, tax-free bonuses, reduced paperwork and stronger legal protection for teachers. Teachers also called for more classrooms, smaller class sizes, adequate learning materials and basic school facilities.

A united, organized, and vigilant teaching force is a formidable force — one that the government cannot afford to ignore.