AN ACT PROVIDING A TEACHING SUPPLIES ALLOWANCE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR Eighteenth Congress First Regular Session House Bill No. 0222
📷 EXPLANATORY NOTE
Public school teachers are among the lowest paid professionals in our society. In spite of this, they are often forced to pay for everyday classroom supplies out of their own pockets.
Traditionally, the government provides classroom teachers with an annual allowance for classroom supplies, popularly known as a "chalk allowance" allotted to purchase classroom essentials such as chalks, erasers, forms and other supplies and materials. Due to the consistent push of ACT Teachers Party-List for greater subsidy for education and less burden to the pockets of teachers for expenses necessary for teaching the "chalk allowance" was increased from P700 per teachers per school year (P3.50 per school day) in 2011 to P3,500 (P16.83 per school day) in 2018.
However, this amount is not enough to cover the costs of supplies including pens, pencils, notebooks, class records, manila papers, cartolina, bond paper, art paper, even ICT needs, that are essential for the daily functioning of teaching and learning in the classroom. With the imposition and half-baked implementation of the insufficiently funded K to 12 Program, public schools were not given enough number of copies of teachers' guides and learners' materials to be used in adopting the new curriculum. Schools' budgets for miscellaneous and other operating expenses are still insufficient to cover the needs for instruction.
Hence, teachers must draw from their own finances to pay for these materials which, in the first place should be provided by the government.
This bill proposes to increase the annual allowance for classroom supplies from P1,500 to P5,000 (or P24.63 per day), thereby easing this onerous financial burden of teachers.
This was approved by the Committee on Basic Education of the House of Representatives and the Senate on third reading during the 17th Congress.
Immediate approval of this bill is therefore sought.
Rep. FRANCE L. CASTRO
ACT Teachers Party-List
Rep. CARLOS ISAGANI T. ZARATE
BAYAN MUNA Party-List
Rep. FERDINAND GAITE
BAYAN MUNA Party-List
Rep. EUFEMIA C. CULLAMAT
BAYAN MUNA Party-List
Rep. ARLENE D. BROSAS
GABRIELA Women's Party
Rep. SARAH JANE I. ELAGO
KABATAAN Party-List
House Bill No. 0222 (DOWNLOAD HERE)
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