Chalks…Markers…Papers…These are three of the common ‘weapons’ of a teacher. Truly, these basic materials are a part of a teacher’s daily life, comparable to how a soldier carries his rifle, gun, and ammunitions in the performance of his duties. What will happen if a teacher lacks them?

 Recently, the good news that the ‘chalk allowance’ will be raised from 2,500 to 3,500 pesos provided some form of relief to the teachers. This means additional teaching and instructional materials for the students’ sake. When coupled with timeliness in releasing the budget, teachers will have more time in preparation for the next school year, thus resulting to better quality of classroom instructions. Most people might think that it is still not enough for a whole school year, and that is why some lawmakers are hopeful that it should be raised to 5,000 pesos per teacher come next year. If this becomes a reality, then educators may not need to take a portion or at least can minimize the use of their own salaries to finance the needs in their classes, which was the case when the amount was a mere 1,000 back in 2014. While this is not a complete solution to all the problems in the public school system in the Philippines, this improvement should take our students one step forward to achieving quality education.

More importantly, as being alike to soldiers, teachers selflessly sacrifice themselves so that their students will see a bright future without asking for anything in return.

By: Arvin L. Pascual, Teacher I | COB National Highschool | Balanga, Bataan