Teacher’s Perspective on their Compensation and Workload at SMCQC

Abstract

Studies often focused on underpaid public school teachers, and only a few have tackled private school teachers, even though there are almost 300,000 private school teachers among the 800,000 teachers of the Department of Education (Mark Anthony Llego, 2020). Thus, the researcher aims to identify or determine if private school teachers, specifically teachers from St. Mary’s College of Quezon City, are also underpaid. The study’s sample consisted of six (6) teachers from St. Mary’s College of Quezon City who have three or more years of service as a teacher. Qualitative interviews were done to gather their insights. It was found that some teachers felt that they were not adequately compensated as their salaries did not keep up with the inflation rate. Others mentioned that their workload was reasonable if they worked within the stipulated time frame. Informants also suggested that the government should provide more support to private schools to ensure that teachers receive salaries comparable to those in other professions. Teachers’ compensation is enough to keep up with daily living costs, and SMCQC compensation is higher than most private schools. However, a teacher usually works overtime and beyond the schedule because of the workload.