Guidelines on the Provision of Special Hardship Allowance for Public School Teachers
(Enclosure to DepEd Order No.039, s. 2021)
I. RATIONALE
The Department of Education (DepEd) recognizes that in order to make education more accessible to all, it is necessary to recruit, retain, and encourage personnel to work in hard-to-reach, far-flung stations as well as those with more challenging working conditions. The grant of incentive pay to such teachers, particularly a Special Hardship Allowance (SHA), is supportive of this cause.
Pursuant to Section 19 of Republic Act No. 4670, otherwise known as the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers, DepEd has been providing SHA as additional compensation to teachers who are "exposed to hardship such as difficulty in commuting to the place of work or other hazards peculiar to the place of employment, as determined by the Secretary. Consequently, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) issued the National Budget Circular (NBC) No. 514, s. 2007 to operationalize the provision of SHA.
While these policies provided guidance in the payment of SHA, implementation challenges surfaced during field monitoring. The concerns primarily centered on the need to come up with a more objective method of identifying recipients and streamlining the long process of availment. These changes are essential to rectify varying interpretations of the NBC 514.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) together with DepEd, conducted a study on the provision of SHA: from the identification of recipients to the actual payment of allowance. The study revealed that the current decentralized processing of the SHA leads to variation in the interpretation of the guidelines resulting in different computations, particularly in the absence of a standardized tool for calculating the individual SHA per teacher.
The study also uncovered other major hardship factors contributing to the difficulty of situation in schools, aside from transport inaccessibility stipulated in NBC 514. The most significant of these factors are: time and cost of transportation from school to Schools Division Office (SDO), human violence, availability of temporary learning spaces, level of poverty, and availability of basic amenities and services, such as telecommunication, water, and electricity.
Thus, these guidelines are issued to ensure a streamlined, more objective, and efficient process of SHA payment to qualified teachers.
II. SCOPE
This DepEd Order defines the roles and responsibilities of the Central Office (CO), Regional Office (RO), and Schools Division Office (SDO) for the provision of SHA to qualified personnel.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
a. Alternative Learning System (ALS) refers to a parallel learning system that is a viable alternative to the existing formal education instruction. It encompasses both the non-formal and informal sources of knowledge and skills,
b. ALS Mobile Teacher refers to a specialized public school teacher conducting learning sessions using the alternative learning delivery mode whose duties require movement from one station to another in depressed, disadvantaged, and underserved communities,²
c. District ALS Coordinator (DALSC) refers to a public school teacher who is officially designated by the Schools Division Superintendent (SDS) to perform coordination functions for the ALS program in addition to his/her regular duties as a learning facilitator.³
d. Iship Index (HI) refers to any number from 0 to 1 representing the degree of hardship of a particular school combining all the variables identified as hardship factors: time and cost of transportation from school to Schools Division Office (SDO), human violence, availability of temporary learning spaces, level of poverty, and availability of basic amenities (e.g. telecommunication, water and electricity services). The closer the value of the index to 1, the higher the degree of difficulty of the school situation.
e. Hardship Post (HP) refers to a workstation (Public School/Community Learning Center) located in areas characterized by extraordinarily hard, uncomfortable and extreme difficulties based on the hardship factors measured by the HI.S f. Multi-Grade (MG) Teacher refers to a public school teacher handling a combined class of two or more grade levels.
g. Permanent Appointment refers to the appointment issued to a person who meets all the qualification requirements of the position to which he/she is being appointed to, including the appropriate eligibility, in accordance with the provisions of law, rule and standards promulgated in pursuance thereof.6
h. Provisional Appointment refers to the appointment issued to an appointee who meets all the requirements of the position except the eligibility but only in the absence of a qualified eligible available who is willing to accept the appointment, as certified by the Schools Division Superintendent."
i. Pure Multi-Grade (MG) School refers to a school that solely offers combined classes of two or more grade levels except for Kindergarten.
j. School Head refers to a person responsible for the administrative and instructional supervision of the school or cluster of schools.
k. Special Hardship Allowance (SHA) refers to an additional compensation generally paid to teachers who are exposed to hazards and difficulties because of the nature and/or location of their work.
encompasses both the non-formal and informal sources of knowledge and skills,
b. ALS Mobile Teacher refers to a specialized public school teacher conducting learning sessions using the alternative learning delivery mode whose duties require movement from one station to another in depressed, disadvantaged, and underserved communities,²
c. District ALS Coordinator (DALSC) refers to a public school teacher who is officially designated by the Schools Division Superintendent (SDS) to perform coordination functions for the ALS program in addition to his/her regular duties as a learning facilitator.³
d. Iship Index (HI) refers to any number from 0 to 1 representing the degree of hardship of a particular school combining all the variables identified as hardship factors: time and cost of transportation from school to Schools Division Office (SDO), human violence, availability of temporary learning spaces, level of poverty, and availability of basic amenities (e.g. telecommunication, water and electricity services). The closer the value of the index to 1, the higher the degree of difficulty of the school situation.
e. Hardship Post (HP) refers to a workstation (Public School/Community Learning Center) located in areas characterized by extraordinarily hard, uncomfortable and extreme difficulties based on the hardship factors measured by the HI.S
f. Multi-Grade (MG) Teacher refers to a public school teacher handling a combined class of two or more grade levels.
g. Permanent Appointment refers to the appointment issued to a person who meets all the qualification requirements of the position to which he/she is being appointed to, including the appropriate eligibility, in accordance with the provisions of law, rule and standards promulgated in pursuance thereof.6
h. Provisional Appointment refers to the appointment issued to an appointee who meets all the requirements of the position except the eligibility but only in the absence of a qualified eligible available who is willing to accept the appointment, as certified by the Schools Division Superintendent." i. Pure Multi-Grade (MG) School refers to a school that solely offers combined classes of two or more grade levels except for Kindergarten.
j. School Head refers to a person responsible for the administrative and instructional supervision of the school or cluster of schools.
k. Special Hardship Allowance (SHA) refers to an additional compensation generally paid to teachers who are exposed to hazards and difficulties because of the nature and/or location of their work.
encompasses both the non-formal and informal sources of knowledge and skills,
b. ALS Mobile Teacher refers to a specialized public school teacher conducting learning sessions using the alternative learning delivery mode whose duties require movement from one station to another in depressed, disadvantaged, and underserved communities,²
c. District ALS Coordinator (DALSC) refers to a public school teacher who is officially designated by the Schools Division Superintendent (SDS) to perform coordination functions for the ALS program in addition to his/her regular duties as a learning facilitator.³
d. Iship Index (HI) refers to any number from 0 to 1 representing the degree of hardship of a particular school combining all the variables identified as hardship factors: time and cost of transportation from school to Schools Division Office (SDO), human violence, availability of temporary learning spaces, level of poverty, and availability of basic amenities (e.g. telecommunication, water and electricity services). The closer the value of the index to 1, the higher the degree of difficulty of the school situation.
e. Hardship Post (HP) refers to a workstation (Public School/Community Learning Center) located in areas characterized by extraordinarily hard, uncomfortable and extreme difficulties based on the hardship factors measured by the HI.S
f. Multi-Grade (MG) Teacher refers to a public school teacher handling a combined class of two or more grade levels.
g. Permanent Appointment refers to the appointment issued to a person who meets all the qualification requirements of the position to which he/she is being appointed to, including the appropriate eligibility, in accordance with the provisions of law, rule and standards promulgated in pursuance thereof.6
h. Provisional Appointment refers to the appointment issued to an appointee who meets all the requirements of the position except the eligibility but only in the absence of a qualified eligible available who is willing to accept the appointment, as certified by the Schools Division Superintendent." i. Pure Multi-Grade (MG) School refers to a school that solely offers combined classes of two or more grade levels except for Kindergarten.
j. School Head refers to a person responsible for the administrative and instructional supervision of the school or cluster of schools.
k. Special Hardship Allowance (SHA) refers to an additional compensation generally paid to teachers who are exposed to hazards and difficulties because of the nature and/or location of their work.
CONTINUE READING..
0 Comments