MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / July 29, 2013) – Public school teachers and education workers have called on the Aquino government to release their long-delayed Performance-Based Bonus after the Department of Education failed to comply with their promise.
According to the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, the bonus scheme is also a divisive and discriminatory among their ranks.
“The PBB was long overdue. What is worse is that the divisive and discriminatory nature of this scheme is very obvious. It clothes itself as a rewards mechanism for those who perform ‘good, better, or best’ and implies that some teachers and staff do not,” ACT Chairman Benjamin Valbuena said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
He said: “The truth, any rewards system that pretends to set apart the performing (individual) from the non-performing falls flat in the face of the shortages which continue to be unmet by this administration.It is not true that we do not perform. In fact we do jobs beyond what our profession as teachers call for and in cases of abnormal situations in our place of work we make the most of limited resources to aid us in our job. Our commitment is the motivating factor in each and every one of us. The PBB will never be an objective system that will serve as a truthful evaluation of the teachers’ performance.”
Valbuena also cited Lewis Solomon and Michael Podgursky’s findings on the “Pros and Cons of Performance-Based Compensation,” citing that far from incentivizing unity among education personnel, such a scheme fostered competition.
“It is against the union environment and the collaborative nature of teaching,” the study noted. “Only a minute percentage of the faculty is being rewarded for exemplary performance instead of improving the quality of teaching conditions as a whole.”
He said as for the supposed performance indicators, the basis of PBB set by the government is beyond the control of teachers. He said ACT also received reports from other parts of the country that PBB was slashed by as much as 25% tax which further angered teachers. “Bonuses are not subject to taxation. This clearly reflects the insensitivity of the Aquino administration to the plight of teachers while at the same time confirming that basic social services like education are not his priority,” he said.
Valbuena said the PBB will never be a justifiable system of measurement of the performance of public school teachers. He said what is needed is an across-the-board salary increase for all teachers and personnel in the education sector nationwide and to abolish Executive Order No. 80 or the performance-based incentive system for government employees.
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