TDC ASKED DEPED TO RELEASE PBB

NEWS RELEASE

October 18, 2016

WHERE IS OUR PBB? TEACHERS ASK DEPED

The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) asked the Department of Education (DepEd) to release the performance based bonus (PBB) that should have been given this month based on the DepEd timeline.

This PBB has always been an object of criticism in the system because of the usual delays in its release since it started in fiscal year 2012.” said Benjo Basas, TDC national chairperson.

Basas however said that while October has not yet ended, the DepEd should assure that the bonus will be released within the month so the teachers and personnel could use the money for their needs, especially that many provinces were affected by the series of typhoons.

The PBB is part of the productivity based-incentive system (PBIS) under the Salary Standardization Law-3 enacted in 2009 but only implemented since 2012 under the Executive Order 80 signed by then President Benigno  Aquino III.

The other bonus is the productivity enhancement incentive or PEI amounting to P5,000 and given to all the employees and officials of the government.

But Basas said his group wanted the government to scrap the policy and grant an across the board incentive which is fair and justifiable instead.

“This PBB scheme is unfair and deceptive and would further divide the government employees,” he said.

The monetary benefits to government employees range from 0 to P35,000 based on their ‘performance’ but teachers claim that DepEd has no clear-cut standard resulting in “incentive disparity and demoralization among the teachers since it was first implemented in school year 2012-2013,” according to Basas.

“Another problem is the delay in the release of this incentive. The PBB is supposedly given by the end of the year, our 2012 incentive however was only released in August 2013, the same fate happen for PBB of teachers for the succeeding years until last school year. Now, teachers are still waiting for the bonus based on their performance in year 2015-206.” Basas added. 

Recently, however, the DepEd made changes on the performance rating system and added office performance as one of the indicators for rating the schools. Other indicators are the drop-out rate, language assessment for primary grades (LAPG)/ national achievement test (NAT) scores and the disbursement of school’s funds to measure the school performance which is also the basis of the individual amount to be received by teachers.

“All of those criteria have nothing to do with the performance of individual teachers, thus putting the majority of us to disadvantage,” Basas lamented.