Chapter 1

The Problem and its setting

Background of the study

Teachers, proctor, professor or whatever you call them they we are still all the same at

the end of the day, we as a person have needs and obligation that we need to tend to.

Teachers are not exempted from these obligations because they too are humans that belong to

this society where money is needed. A salary increase has a great impact on every person

who belongs to the labor force of a country, teachers who have a salary increase by means of

their rank as a master’s degree holder or a doctorate degree holder tends to teach student

more effectively than other teachers who don’t own such titles yet. Having the motivation to

do things for a price, feedback, reward, or gaining something in return can somewhat be

effective (Cherry, 2019).

Teacher salary is one of the most essential elements in seeking internal efficiency of

an educational system and is closely related to the qualitative level of the teaching force

(Hanushek, Kain, O’Brien, & Rivkin, 2005). It takes up the largest portion among

educational expenditures and is referred to as being the most important factor in attracting

excellent teachers (OECD, 2006). In the developing countries, teacher salary emerged as an

important issue in the 1980s, when economic crisis was rampant. Facing a dual problem of

reducing spending in social are simultaneously responding to the public pressure to invest in

human resources, many governments started to look for methods to control expenses. Such a

pressure became even bigger as more teachers were required and more investment was called

for to expand school facilities and accommodate the increased number of school-aged

children. (Psacharopoulos, Valenzuela, & Arends, 1996). A study was conducted on Korea

about the teacher salaries, the analysis was focused “basic salary” on the length of service and
salary class; “common allowance” paid to not only teachers but also all the other civil

servants; “special work” provided to the teachers in consideration of the uniqueness of their

work; miscellaneous reimbursement” given to teachers to compensate for the cost that

occurred in completing their task; and the total salary, which sums up all of these earnings.

However, the peak amount of basic salary is still low in proportion, and particularly,

teachers with less years of service tend to have lower basic salaries proportionately. And

third, diverse factors such as teachers' total years of experience, economic crisis due to

foreign currency, and the government's financial capacity have all influenced to either

increase or decrease teachers’ salaries. Never- the less, it is difficult to find any policy

considerations to attract excellent teachers. Instead, competitiveness of the teaching

profession has gone down in terms of salary, and the salary structure is formed in a way that

is dis-advantageous to beginning teachers, and according to Jung-shin Park, You-Kyung Han,

and Ee-gyeong Kim in order to raise the attractiveness of the teaching profession, it will be

necessary to increase the teacher salary in its entirety.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon has submitted a proposal in Manila,

Philippines seeking to raise the entrance-level wage of government school professors to at

least P30, 000 per month from the current P20, 754. According to Drilon, “We should

provide teachers with the right incentives to encourage them to remain in the noblest

profession of educating and molding our youth to become productive citizens of this

country,” (Cabico, 2019)

If passed into law, the bill will also adjust teacher wages in greater positions. Drilon

observed that while the education industry gets the biggest share of the national budget,

educators pay stays smaller than other professional wages.

Davao City, Philippines – Public school teachers here renewed their call for a
substantial salary increase, saying it’s a “long overdue” demand of the sector. Alliance of

Concerned Teachers Union in Davao Region President Elenito Escalante said that the fourth

tranche of wage adjustment coming next month is "not enough" as they are profoundly

impacted by the price rise of fundamental commodities brought about by the Acceleration

and Inclusion Tax Reform (TRAIN) law. “Educators who belong to Teacher I, II, and III

ranks will receive 2.8% to 4.2% salary increases under the 4th tranche of pay hike, which are

way below the 5.2% inflation rate in 2018,” said Escalante in a statement read during a press

conference on Friday, January 25 (Genotiva, 2019)

The group of teachers said they are firm in calling for a P30, 000 wage for Teacher I,

P31, 000 for Teacher I at State Universities and Colleges, and P16, 000 for staff of grade 1

wage. Only a P10, 000 increase from Teacher I's present monthly P20, 000 wage, Escalante

said. For him, an increase is well deserved by overworked educators of public schools.

(Genotiva, 2019).

This study wants to know at what level of improvement did the teachers who

experienced an increase of salary reach. This study aims to know if the increased of salary

helped the teachers to improve as a good instructor. We also want to know if the increased of

salary affected the life of a teacher.

Statement of the Problem

1. What are the reason for the salary increase of public school teachers and the factors

that triggered the salary hike?

(1.1) Location of the school

(1.2) Excrescence of products in the market

(1.3) Longed demands of teachers for a much more sustainable salary?

2. What major effect do the salary increase did to the improvement of public school
teacher teaching performance?

3. What improvement did the teachers do to their teaching strategies;

(3.1) Lesson plans

(3.2) Visual Aids

(3.3) The use of technology

Related Review Literature

In our growing economy prices are rising up and sometimes our monthly pay check is

not enough for our daily needs. Teachers’ salary in our country is quite below the belt

especially if you are newly hired in an institute that you chose to work.

Price of Goods

According to the World Bank in its article about the Philippines entitled Philippines

Economic Update: Investing in the Future, our growing economic society here in the

Philippines have been the fastest growing economic society compared to our neigh boring

countries inflationary pressure is expected to intensify due to both domestic and external

factor. Demands for a high paying job is abundant to sustain a more productive employee.

Teachers are not an exemption an increase of teacher’s salary is proving effective in terms of

improving their energy in teaching (Evans 2019). David Evans said in his article “Does

Raising Teacher Salary Improve Performance?” that in some countries many teachers are

taking second job because of their low salaries in teaching, reducing their energy in teaching

which affect their lesson planning skills resulting to a poor teaching performance. In Texas,

increasing teacher pay reduced turnover, which in turn increased student performance.

Likewise, national studies from the United States and the United Kingdom also find that

students do better when teachers have relatively better wages.

influence the motivation of teachers, who often turn to private tutoring or other part-time

work to supplement their income, which can negatively affect classroom

instruction. Moreover, late or inconsistent pay reduces teacher morale. Reforms that link

teacher salary with student performance are controversial and inconsistent across contexts,

due largely to how teachers are evaluated and paid (e.g., by individual, grade, or school). Yet,

ideally teacher advancement and salaries would be connected to overall teacher quality.

“Now as more teacher experienced salary hike evidence is rolling in answering if paying

teachers more improves teacher quality and thus the educational experiences for our nation’s

students” (Reid 2016).

Government Issues

Teachers in our country are calling out the higher up for an increase of salary.

President Rodrigo Duterte heard and promise that he will increase the salary of teachers in all

public schools here in the Philippines. The wage factor and the quality of working life needs

to get the attention of the management to be able for improve the employees’ performance.

Raising of basic salary with the intent to show that civil servants, including teachers, abstain

from excessive monetary benefits, and likewise the salary has been determined in a close

relation with productivity of the nation's overall economy. Teacher salary is one of the most

essential elements in seeking internal efficiency of an educational system and is closely

related to the qualitative level of the teaching force (Hanushek, Kain, O’Brien, & Rivkin,

2005). It takes up the largest portion among educational expenditures and is referred to as

being the most important factor in attracting excellent teachers (OECD, 2006). Extrinsic

motivation can fuel a teacher to perform well in his/her teaching environment, salary hike and

reward base motivation can motivate them to be well prepared in terms of preparing their

lesson plans. Many teachers in the Philippines needs a salary increase because some public
school teachers are teaching in remote areas and needs more assistant and support. Teacher in

private schools is basing their increase of pay in the years of an employee in their institution,

if you are teaching in an institution for many years’ chances are you will get a higher salary

and benefits from that institution. Some institution rewards their employees’ base on their

performance, Research in both education and the private sector has shown that designing an

effective compensation system, one that encourages employees to work toward an

organization's goals, requires the involvement and support of employees and their leaders. If

employees believe, for instance, that a new pay system either rewards or punishes them for

outcomes over which they have no control, then it will engender only bitterness and lost

productivity. My colleagues and I have helped to design new pay structures that have the

benefit of being both effective and workable, having garnered the support of both school

districts and the two national teacher unions (Allan, 2005).

Teachers Attendance/Performance in Relation with their Pay

Inherently absent in teacher merit pay studies with the lens of agency theory is the

accommodation or inclusion of intrinsic variables of motivation, specifically non-

economic variables in light of overwhelming evidence that a vast majority of public

school teachers are intrinsically motivated.

Within the context of the classroom and education in general, expectancy theory

has been applied for the purpose of various purposes, be it taking into account the

perspective of expectations developed by the means of teacher in relation to their

students, or the expectations that students develop towards the teacher and/or class.

Several studies have been designed with the purpose of measuring expectations regarding

the processes of learning, assessment and academic success (Harrell, Caldwell & Doty,

1985).
 On the occasion of examining the topic of merit pay, neither agency theory nor

expectancy theory is appropriate since these two theories do not accommodate non-

economic variables or motivations associated with teacher performance. This could

explain why merit pay has often been unsuccessfully adopted by the means of school

systems and is usually attacked by teacher unions (Arrowsmit & Marginson, 2010). A

better way to examine merit pay, teacher behaviours, and student achievement is to utilize

equity theory as the conceptual framework.

The merit pays are expressing some possibilities of threats to teacher morale and

their performance of teaching, based on the equity theory. The extreme goal of education

is to continue in a process of a development of the student-learning (Wiggins & McTighe,

2007). In the event that teachers are focused on student learning as function of their

output, their behaviours, or inputs, will exemplify this. On the occasion of merit pay

systems are introduced, however, the goal of the teacher changes to include outcomes that

result in increased compensation. In the event that goals are mastery-based, then they can

enhance the performance of an individual worker because of the fact that mastery will

then become the input of the worker expects for the purpose of their output. In the event

that goals are monetary, then typically they can have dangerous “side effects”, such as

focusing attention “so narrowly that people overlook other important features of a task”

(Ordonez, Schweitzer, Galinsky, & Braverman, 2009, p. 6). In education, this type of

narrow focus has been manifested by the means of unnoticed behaviours such as not

teaching a rich curriculum in a narrow focus on state exams. More significantly, there

have been increased occurrences of cheating on state-wide exams. While the majority of

teachers might not resort as a means of cheating because of the compensation, the brain

reacts differently to monetary rewards than it does to other inputs (Knutson, Adams,
Fong, & Hommer, 2001). This dopamine reaction could explain why goals and thus

behaviour changes once rewards are introduced. In essence, the teacher becomes

“addicted as a means of rewards” (Souvorov, 2003, para. 4) and will change her focus to

earn the reward instead of, or in addition to, student learning. As the outcome, merit pay

carries some risk of changing teachers’ focus and, as a result, the mission of the school

that a traditional compensation system does not. Alfie Kohn’s Punished by Rewards

addressed the many unintended consequences that occur in educational settings on the

occasion of behaviour is linked to rewards (Kohn, 1999).

In addition, the traditional teaching salary structure is viewed by the means of

many economists as inequitable, and scholars have examined whether a not balanced

salaries for the purpose of starting teachers cause teachers to leave their current school

systems or to leave the career entirely (Podgursky & Springer, 2011). One limitation of

equity theory as it applies to the salary structure is that teachers are giving similar outputs

but receiving different inputs. However, teachers who are motivated by the means of

intrinsic motivators such as the mission of their school do not need rewards due to the

reasons stated that the effects of the intrinsic already maximize productivity (Besley &

Ghatak, 2005,). Moreover, Frey (1997) asserts that monetary rewards can have a negative

effect on intrinsic motivation and productivity, particularly for the purpose of those who

are primarily intrinsically motivated. As a result, based on the causes, the input-output

assumption put forth by the means of equity theory is not a good fit for the purpose of

education because of the fact that it only addresses teachers who value the financial

motivation in order to teach and ignores those who cite other reasons for the purpose of

choosing the career.

Theoretical Framework
In the 1990s, agency theory emerged as the main theory guiding the research in merit pay

(Bloom and Milkovich, 1998). Agency theory is based on the assumption that people want to

avoid risk or hard work and a supervisor must account for this by creating a compensation

system that compels the worker to work while minimizing risk (Jensen, 1983). This theory is

inadequate for studying merit pay in the current public education system since numerous

studies have found teachers to be motivated by reasons other than economic (Besley &

Ghatak, 2005; Cohen & Murnane, 1985; Kellough & Lu, 1993; Marsden & Richardson,

1994). The overarching assumption in agency theory is that agents, or teachers, need an

economic reason to show up to work every day.

Expectancy Theory has also been used as a theoretical basis for examining merit pay

(Kellough & Lu, 1993). This theory assumes that people “make decisions among alternative

plans of behaviour based on their perceptions or expectation of the degree to which given

behaviours will lead to desired outcomes.” When scholars have an applied the constructs of

expectancy theory to merit pay, they have likewise positioned teachers as economically

motivated. In expectancy theory, teacher expectations are examined as a function behaviour.

Studies have demonstrated that teachers’ pedagogical decisions (or behaviours) are made

with the expectations (or motivations) of increase student learning. Expectancy theory posits

teacher behaviour is a function of expectations for an increased in compensation.

Equity Theory is based on perceived fairness and whether individuals believe they are

being treated fairly in an organization (Greenberg & Coquitt, 2005). Workers inputs and

outputs are considered in equity theory. Applying equity theory to merit pay, compensation

would be an input and work would be an output. One of the tenets of equity theory is that

people are demotivated to work when they perceive their output is not equal to their input. If

their input is intrinsic, then workers can directly relate their output to their input; however, if

the focus of the input is economic, then often workers have trouble relating their input to their
output (Shaw ET. Al, 2013). To illustrate, teachers who teach AP courses expect to give more

output in the form of planning, grading, and preparation while their input is in the form of

prestige for teaching the course and student scores on the AP exam both of which validate the

extra time it takes to teach the course.

Significance of the Study

The researcher believe that it is essential to know the improvement of public school

teachers in their teaching performance before and after the salary hike on all of the public

schools in the Philippines especially the public schools in Davao city.

The result of the study may be beneficial to the following:

Students. The result of this study will be beneficial to the students as this will greatly

help them to fully understand the salary increase that the government issued for public school

teachers. It will help them to gain more insight about the benefits that a public school teacher

can have.

Future Researchers. This study will be beneficial to the future researcher as this

could be a good reference for their research.

Teachers: This study will give the teacher the knowledge and awareness of what

effect do the salary hike did to the public school teachers in Davao city.

Researchers. The result of this study will be beneficial to the researchers as this will

help them to gain more knowledge and information about the salary increase of public school

teacher.
Scope and Limitation

The main purpose of this study is to provide information regarding the improvement

of teacher’s performance in class because of the salary hike in every public school in the

Philippines especially the public school in Davao city where we will get our respondents. The

studies consider the public school teachers name, personal opinion about the matter,

experienced about the salary hike, and the benefits they’ve received.

Definition of terms

Salary. The amount of money that employee is paid each year.

The word salary is used in our study to describe the wage of teachers.

Increase. To become larger or greater in size, amount, and, number.

The word Increase is used in our study for the raise of salary of public school teachers.

Improvement. The act of improving something: the act or process of making something

better.

Improvement in our study is used to describe what are the advancement made by the

public school teachers after before and the after the salary increase.

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