Article by: Jhanavi Ravi
Visual by: Ysabelle Lim
There are some American states like Arizona and Hawaii that are facing a shortage of teachers; American teachers consider the salaries that US public schools offer as too low. To resolve this obstacle in providing public education, some states have scouted for teachers from the Philippines, mainly because Filipino teachers are fluent in English, unlike teachers from other overseas countries. Although the Philippines already has a lack of teachers within the country. When the United States looks for teachers from the Philippines for their schools, it causes a further shortage of teachers in the Philippines.
“Rather than increase salaries, districts may once again resort to recruiting internationally as a way to solve the teacher shortage,” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a national teachers’ union, said. Among the latest states hit by the teachers protests is Arizona, where teacher pay is more than $10,000 below the national average of $59,000 per year. The Pendergast Elementary School District has recruited more than 50 teachers from the Philippines since 2015. Teachers from the Philippines take up jobs in America because the salaries are much higher than what they would otherwise make. This is also another reason why American public schools scout for teachers from the Philippines in particular. The salaries offered by American public schools would seem like a huge increase for teachers from the Philippines, even though these are the same salaries that cause teachers protests.
In 2016, the Department of Education (DepEd) said there was a shortage of about 47,000 teachers in public elementary schools across the Philippines. In recent years, education researchers and journalists who cover education have called attention to the growing teacher shortage in the nation’s K–12 schools. They cite a variety of indicators of the shortage, including state-by-state subject area vacancies, personal testimonials, and data from state and school district officials. As recently as the 2011–2012 school year, the estimated supply of teachers available to be hired exceeded the demand for them. The Philippines fails to pay a good salary to their teachers. In private schools, the monthly payment can be inexplicably low—P8,000 in some places. And in public schools, teachers face demands that are far from reasonable. Many teachers have to use their own money for things like furniture for the classroom, which is something that teachers should not have to purchase with their own money. Several teachers have pointed out that, because their paydays are farther apart, they are more likely to end up borrowing supplementary cash. Newly hired teachers have to wait for months before they receive their first paid salary, which is why they turn to loans right at the beginning of their job. This is why there is a shortage of teachers in the Philippines to begin with.
However, when American states reach out to teachers from the Philippines and offer them American salaries, that are considerably much higher than the ones they would receive in the Philippines, the shortage of teachers in the Philippines is further exacerbated. The number of qualified teachers in schools in the Philippines decreases, resulting in fewer students being provided a suitable education. This is also a major cause of educational inequity. The less time students spend with teachers individually the greater the education gap between classrooms with a reasonable teacher:student ratio. Meaning, the number of young adults qualified to work decreases, and the economic opportunities of the Philippines slowly becomes worse.
If the economic condition of the Philippines is weakened, it is fairly likely that the salaries for teachers would decrease even further, which can lead to an additional paucity to the number of teachers. The Philippines needs to consider this issue as a priority in the future. If a structured and organized change is made at a nationwide scale, this inadequacy can be resolved.
Works Cited:
Acdedios. Shortage of Teachers, 26 May 2012, www.philippinesbasiceducation.us/2012/05/shortage-of-teachers.html.
Goldstein, Dana. “Teacher Pay Is So Low in Some U.S. School Districts That They're Recruiting Overseas.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 May 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/05/02/us/arizona-teachers-philippines.html.
Tagupa, Hyacinth. “Are PH Teachers Really Underpaid?” INQUIRER.net, 29 June 2018, opinion.inquirer.net/114243/ph-teachers-really-underpaid.
Weiss , Elaine, and Emma García. “The Teacher Shortage Is Real, Large and Growing, and Worse than We Thought: The First Report in 'The Perfect Storm in the Teacher Labor Market' Series.” Economic Policy Institute, 26 Mar. 2019, www.epi.org/publication/the-teacher-shortage-is-real-large-and-growing-and-worse-than-we-thought-the-first-report-in-the-perfect-storm-in-the-teacher-labor-market-series/.
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