ISABELA Rep. Rodolfo Albano asked the Department of Education to explain why there is a delay in the release of the salaries of kindergarten teachers.

The kindergarten teachers hired by the DepEd have not yet received their monthly salary for the past six months.

“Teaching particularly the young children, is a thankless job – educating and molding them to become disciplined and productive members of  society. The most that we could do is ensure that they get the pay due them every 15th and 30th of every month,” Albano said.

There are 29,615 preschool teachers with only 2,299 having permanent status. Kindergarten teachers with contractual status are receiving P3,000 to P6,000 monthly honoraria for a four-hour daily shift, while those with permanent status are getting P17,999 monthly.

DepEd said it needs at least P5.7 billion in additional funds to pay the new kindergarten teachers the regular monthly salary.

Albano said that if the government cannot afford to pay the P3,000 to P6,000 monthly honoraria of the pre-school teachers, it cannot hire the  103,000 public school teachers needed and cannot afford the construction of the needed 66,000 classrooms nationwide to boost the administration’s K+12 basic education program.

Albano urged  Congress to study carefully the proposed K+12 basic education program saying the non-payment of salaries  of the kindergarten teachers shows that the government cannot afford to allocate funds for the additional years of education system.