Let's ensure funds for proposed teaching supplies allowance for public school teachers - Gordon

While senators are still debating the amount for the proposed teaching supplies allowance for public school teachers, Senator Richard J. Gordon on Wednesday called on his colleagues to ensure that allocations for the said allowance would be included in the annual general appropriations bill (GAB).

Gordon said this is to ensure that Senate Bill No, 1092, or the Teaching Supplies Allowance Act of 2019, would remove the additional burden of shouldering the expenses for purchasing teaching supplies from public school teachers once classes can be conducted inside the classrooms again.

"Bakit ang mga teachers pa ang magbabayad ng chalk, ng mga papel nila kung minsan? It's really about time that we do this," he said. Reports said some public school teachers had to buy chalks, erasers, forms and other classroom supplies and materials using their own hard-earned money.

SBN 1092 proposes to institutionalize the grant of a teaching supplies allowance for public school teachers to promote and improve the economic status of teachers and assist them in providing quality education to their students. The allowance shall be limited to teachers who are engaged in actual classroom reaching in public basic education.

Gordon, however, pointed out that it would only become a dead letter law or one that is ineffective from the beginning if there would be no appropriation for it.

"I am in support of this bill and I would like to be co-author. But upon perusal, this is a bill that relies on an inchoate situation, in other words, in expectancy. In other words, kung hindi natin mapapasok sa NEP (national expenditure program), kung di mapapasok sa GAB and later on sa General Appropriations Act, there might be rank demoralization again, pagtatawanan tayo. And I don't think that is the intention of this bill. My view is that we should all really join hands in making sure that this is funded under the General Appropriations bill and later on the GAA," he stressed.