The Marcos administration’s proposed 2027 national budget sets aside ₱10.3 billion to ensure that every public school teacher in the country receives a ₱10,000 annual teaching allowance, the former chalk allowance, renamed to reflect the reality that most classrooms no longer use chalk, Budget Secretary Kim Robert De Leon said Saturday.
De Leon made the statement in an interview on DZRH News program Special on Saturday on September 5, as part of the DZRH SONA 2026 Series featuring the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
The President’s Budget chief said the ₱10.3 billion allocation covers almost all one million public school teachers nationwide, ensuring the allowance is sustained and not cut in the 2027 budget.
“₱10.3 billion yung nakalaan para patuloy yung ₱10,000 allowance per teacher for almost more than 1 million teachers nationwide,” De Leon said.
Undersecretary Goddes Hope Libiran, functional group head for Communications and Public Relations, explained that the allowance was originally called the chalk allowance, a term familiar to veteran teachers, but has since been renamed the teaching allowance to reflect the modernization of classrooms.
De Leon said the teaching allowance is part of a broader package of teacher benefits in the 2027 budget that also includes a 5% salary increase under the fourth tranche of the Salary Standardization Law, ₱12 billion for the Expanded Career Progression, and nearly ₱1 billion for new teaching and non-teaching positions.
The Budget chief said teachers will also continue to benefit from training and professional development provisions within DepEd’s maintenance and operating expenses budget, which is downloaded to schools division offices and implementing units, mostly high schools, for use in expanding teacher competencies throughout the year.
