Senator Sherwin Gatchalian made three recommendations which he believes should be prioritized by the incoming Marcos administration to fully implement the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers or Republic Act No. 4670.
These are decongesting workload, raising salaries and ensuring adequate health insurance.
He also urged the Department of Education to adopt the proposal of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies to conduct studies on teachers’ workload.
“Achieving the full implementation of the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers should be a priority for the incoming administration,” the senator said.
“It is time for the government to make good on the promises it made to teachers almost six decades ago, yet failed to keep,” he added.
Gatchalian said that DepEd is non-compliant with three sections of the Magna Carta.
Section 22 states that public school teachers are entitled to free annual physical examination.
“While DepEd has provided for some monetary medical assistance since 2019, there is still no program for the annual check-up of teachers as mandated by law,” Gatchalian said.
Section 26 has also not been complied with. It provides that a retiring teacher should be promoted one rank higher and the salary of that rank should be the basis of computation for retirement benefits.
