The Senate passed on the third and final reading a bill that would increase public school teachers’ chalk allowance (budget for school supplies) to P5,000 in 2021 and eventually to P10,000 by 2024.
Currently, the chalk allowance of public school teachers is P3,500 per year or P16 per school day.
Under Senate Bill No. 1092, or the Teaching Supplies Allowance Act of 2020, the yearly chalk allowance would increase to P5,000 in school years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, and then to P7,500 in the school year 2023-2024, and finally to P10,000 starting in the school year 2024-2025.
Once signed into law, the measure would benefit over 800,000 public school teachers nationwide.
“This measure recognizes the hardships, sacrifices, and invaluable contributions of our teachers to our society…. We are a step closer to realizing a better working environment for our teachers,” said Senator Bong Revilla, author, and sponsor of the bill.
“However, fully cognizant of the tremendous demands of this profession, we still have a lot of things that need to be done to uplift and improve the welfare of our teachers,” he added.
Senate passes bill raising chalk allowance of teachers
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, the co-author of the proposed measure, had introduced the changes to increase the supplies allowance gradually over the years it feasible for the government.
Senator Sonny Angara, head of the Senate committee on finance and co-author of the measure, said the allocation for teachers’ increased chalk allowance would be included in the proposed 2021 national budget.
Co-authors of the Senate bill are senators Ralph Recto, Sherwin Gatchalian, Pia Cayetano, Manny Pacquiao, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Joel Villaueva, Cynthia Villar, Nancy Binay, Francis Pangilinan, Richard Gordon, and Risa Hontiveros.
In September, the Department of Education (DepEd) said they may provide monthly connectivity and communications allowance to their teachers and personnel.
The development was amid calls to increase funding for personnel allowance now that DepEd is implementing blended learning methods – or mixed offline and online learning.
However, there is no update yet on the said internet allowance for the teachers who shifted to modular and online learning.