Angara: Teachers to receive P5,000 chalk allowance on July 29

FILE PHOTO: Public school teacher Ivy Catungal with her students at San Diego Elementary School in Batasan Hills, Quezon City. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — The P5,000 “chalk allowance” for teachers will be released on the opening of classes on Monday, July 29, newly installed Education Secretary Sonny Angara said on Tuesday.

“‘Yung chalk allowance will be released very soon, in time for the opening [of classes]. ’Yun talaga ‘yung timing nun eh.

“Pagka-bukas ng klase, may allowance na si teacher para iyong pangangailangan, iyong pagkukulang doon sa kanyang classroom, pwede niyang punan o dagdagan,” Angara said in an ambush interview after the brigada eskwela at Mataas na Paaralang Neptali A. Gonzales in Mandaluyong City.

READ: ‘Chalk allowance’ gets blended with teachers’ new needs

(That’s the timing. When classes open, teachers will have an allowance for your needs. Any shortages in their classroom can be filled or supplemented.)

READ: Law granting teachers P10,000 for supplies up for PBBM’s approval

He noted that the cash allowance will be tax-free, adding that it will increase to P10,000 next year.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed into law last June a measure that would increase the chalk allowance given to public school teachers to ease the burden of the expenses they incur in their teaching activities.

The law would cover teachers at the basic education level.

Angara, one of the bill’s authors when he was senator, said that the law “results in fewer instances when teachers have to make out-of-pocket expenses in the performance of their duties.”