Data Must Speak in the Philippines:

Enhancing the distribution of the Special Hardship Allowance

for Public School Teachers

Mr. Dexter Pante

Chief, School Effectiveness Division

Department of Education

Diverse Situations and Challenges in Philippines ….

Public Schools in the Philippines

Distribution of Elementary and Secondary Schools

Elementary Schools: Distance to District / Division, Travel Time & Cost

Mean Std. Dev.

Distance to Division (km)

58 65

• Travel Time (hrs) 2.2 9.1

• Travel Cost (PhP) 149 337

Distance to District (km)11 24

• Travel Time (hrs) 0.7 2.5

• Travel Cost (PhP) 61 190

Public Elementary,

38,843 , 58%

Private Elementary,

12,790 , 19%

Public Secondary Schools,

8,802 , 13%

Private Secondary Schools,

6,969 , 10%

• DepEd identified need for the effective use of data to enhance equity in services and programmes, and agreed on UNICEF technical assistance partnership (Data Must Speak project) – Early 2016

• Data Must Speak project officially launched April 2016

• DepEd identified the need to update the Special Hardship Allowance for teachers among others

• 1966 Magna Carta for Public School Teachers: • provides for a Special Hardship Allowance (SHA) for teachers exposed to hardship

(e.g. difficulty in commuting / other hazards peculiar to work place) of at least 25% of their monthly salary.

• National Budget Circular 514 (2007)• Grants Special Hardship allowance to school teachers and heads in hardship posts

(priority), multi-grade teachers, mobile teacher, and ALS coordinators• Hardship posts are characterized by: Transport Inaccessibility and Difficulty of

Situation: calamity, hazards to life, inconvenience of travel

Background

• Despite the existing SHA policy, hardship posts still lack experienced teachers.

• SHA, calculated at district level, is not always consistent with policy and appears to be an ineffective incentive as it does not incorporate many hardships experienced by teachers • Variations in implementation at local level • Based almost exclusively on distance • Mismatches between distance and rate• Rate depending on teacher level rather than distance• All teachers receiving the same amount regardless of base salary• Non-teaching staff receiving SHA.

Rationale

• To mitigate the lack of teachers, especially experienced teachers, in hardship posts (addressing inequity in access and quality)

• Consider various factors contributing to teacher hardship

• Develop a Teacher Hardship Index that captures various factors in a single measure in a statistically sound and objective manner

• Identify hardship posts

• Translate Index to commensurate SHA

• Estimate budgetary requirement for revised SHA

• Review and inform the SHA policy

Objectives

• Formation of DMS Technical Working Group (TWG) with relevant DepED staff (DepEd Units involved: Planning, EBEIS, School Effectiveness, HR, Finance, Learning Delivery)

• Consultations with Teachers in Manila and Region XII to identify factors that contribute to Teacher Hardship

• On-line survey of teachers to identify and rank hardship factors

• Analyze DepEd data from the Basic Education Information System and Philippine Statistical Authority to identify the determinants of hardship (measured by lack/shortage of experienced teachers in schools)

• Develop composite index that combines identified sources of hardship and available data sources to calculate a hardship score (0-1) for each school.

• Field testing of the Teacher Hardship Index in a selected DepED division

Strategies/Approaches

Human Violence

14%

Travel Cost to Division

14%

Travel Time to Division

48%

Poverty incidence7%

No electricity7%

No water4%

No internet4%

Temporary learning spaces needed

2%

What consists of “Hardship” and How Much?

Teacher Hardship Index

Teacher Hardship Index (continuous) and corresponding Special Hardship Allowance

TeacherHardship

IndexSHA

amount

# of recipient Schools

# of recipient Staff

0.35 – 0.39 10% 2497 21849

0.4 – 0.49 15% 1253 9881

0.5 – 0.59 20% 731 5297

0.6 up 25% 1005 7583

Number of Schools receiving SHA 5,396

Elementary schools 4,839

High schools 557

Number of staff receiving SHA 44,610

Elementary schools 34,149

High schools 10,461

Total amount (millions) 1,586 Elementary schools amount (millions) 1,227

High schools amount (millions) 360

• Up to 15% of public elementary schools and 7% of public secondary schools will benefit from the Special Hardship Allowance.

• Enhanced distribution will be based on more objective formula and more equitable considering various hardships experienced by schools.

• Present to DepEd Executive Committee

• Discuss with Department of Budget and Management (DBM) suggested amendments on the NBC. Circular.

• Develop and Issue policy

• Communication with to the field offices

• Quality assurance of the data

• Re-assessment and adjustment of the Index

• Impact Evaluation

• DMS project to support automation of School Report Cards

Next Steps

Salamat!