AS THE return to face-to-face classes is set for full implementation by November, neophyte partylist Pinuno is pushing for free on-site living quarters for public school teachers.
Pinuno Partylist Representative Howard Guintu has filed House Bill 1041 or the proposed “Free On-Site Living Quarters for Public School Teachers Act” which seeks to assist the mobilization of teachers, especially those living far away from their deployment school.
Guintu explained that the bill would lessen the burden of the public school teachers who spend long hours of travel to their designated schools, especially in far-flung areas and mountainous regions, and cross rivers or seas daily to teach in island communities.
“The establishment of on-site living quarters for our public school teachers will improve their employment and working conditions. Quality education can be ensured when obstacles to our educator’s working conditions are diminished,” he said.
Guintu added that with the current prices of petroleum, it is more practical for the government to provide housing or living quarters to teachers to reduce their transportation costs.
“The bill will also guarantee the availability of competent and dedicated public school teachers in the remotest of areas in the country with the slightest hardship if passed,” he said.
Guintu, meanwhile, stressed that benefits and allowances currently received by teachers should be maintained despite such living quarters.
Once passed, the bill will direct the Department of Education (DepEd), in consultation with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), to formulate and promulgate the necessary implementing rules and regulations of this Act.
HB 1041, which is among the inaugural bills of Guintu, is consistent with the partylist’s priority programs which is to provide free and low-cost housing to marginalized sectors of the community.