SENATE Minority Leader Ralph Recto is optimistic that the bill more than doubling the public school teachers' yearly "chalk allowance" from P1,500 to P3,500 will be approved in the chamber before the year ends.
Recto's Senate bill 812, which was sponsored on the floor last Wednesday, October 19, seeks to increase to P3,500 annually the public school teachers' teaching supply allowance.
"Like anything written on the blackboard, we can erase and change the amount of our teachers' 'chalk allowance'," Recto said in his sponsorship speech.
The teaching supply allowance is given to teachers at the start of the school year for the purchase of chalk, pens, erasers, paper and other school supplies they use in teaching.
Recto said that the present allocation of P1,500 translates into a "measly P7 daily budget" based on a 202-day academic year.
Increasing the allowance, Recto pointed out, would allow teachers "to expand their shopping list, to include computer and Internet-use supplies, like USBs and even occasional 'load' for online research."
"In this digital age, there are computer-related supplies the teacher uses, and these must be considered in computing the supplies they need," the senator said.
Recto recalled that the current P1,500 rate was the result of the amendment to the national budget he and then Senate finance committee chair Senator Francis Escudero made in 2014.
He said the chalk allowance is an overlooked item in budget.
"It may be a mere speck in the budget but it cannot be dismissed as unimportant. Chalks, and pens, papers and cartolinas are to teachers as what bullets and combat rations are to soldiers," Recto said.
Recto said increasing the chalk allowance to P3,500 will cost P2.78 billion, based on the 2017 Department of Education (DepEd) teaching workforce of 797,119.
Because P1.195 billion is already in the 2017 budget, the additional fund needed is about P1.59 billion, he explained.
Under the bill, P1,500 will be appropriated in the DepEd budget, and the P2,000 will be shouldered by Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation.
"You can call it a chip-for-chalk swap. I call such an arrangement a winning combination," Recto said. (Sunnex)