Demo-Socio-Economic Characteristics of Teachers in the Philippines

1. Gender

 In the United States, in a research done by Southern California Consortium on Research in Education last 2002, it was found out that more than two-thirds of teachers are women in California (Southern California Consortium on Research in Education, 2002). However, in South Australia, 53% of teachers in the secondary level are males though there are more female teachers in other levels (Oswald & Johnson, 1991).

In the Philippines, female teachers overwhelmingly dominate male teachers in numbers, both in public and private schools, where female teachers are as much as 93% in Pampanga (David, 2001), 90% in Nueva Ecija (Nisperos, 2001), 84% in Zamboanga (Belino, 1991), and the whole of Department of Education signifies 80% female employees (Petrasanta, 2005). Female teachers occupied 84.9 percent of the total teaching positions, at the same time, comprised the bulk of the workforce at 45.9 percent. Public school teachers are the largest occupational group in the Philippine Civil Service comprising 30.4 percent or 449,340 of the entire government workforce (Civil Service Commission, 2004).

The female gender is also the preferred sex for foreign English as Second Language (ESL) teachers in Korea (http://korean-shool.blogspot.com2007/01/study-two-teachers-age.html). Females are favored over males, especially those that  are young and inexperienced.

2. Age

Teachers in the Philippines are predominantly in their young and middle-adulthood stage. Nisperos (2001), in his study of teachers in Nueva Ecija revealed that a big number of teachers fall in age brackets of 31-55 while Razon (1994) found out that the age of the teachers in the Division of Batangas range from 20 to 65 years old with an average of 54 years old. In Zamboanga, majority of the teachers are clustered in the 41-above age bracket (Belino, 1991). In Pampanga, teachers are on the age bracket of 35-39 and 50-54 (David, 2001). In the province of Cavite, Landicho (1997) revealed that majority of teachers are in the middle-age bracket of 30-44 years old and supported also by Medina (1999) and Balani (2000).

3. Civil Status

In the context of the Philippines, majority of the teachers are married as shown by the studies in Nueva Ecija (Frany, 1994; Nisperos, 2001), in Cavite (Feranil, 2001; Petrasanta, 2005) and in Pampanga (David, 2001).

4. Length of Service

In the context of the Philippines, majority of the teachers have been working for ten years and more (Razon, 1994; Belino, 1991; David, 2001).

5. Educational Attainment

In the Philippines, it is a law that basic educational teachers (elementary and high school) are baccalaureate degree holders and licensed by the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC). With regards to the Filipino teachers’ educational attainment, it was found out that about 50% of them acquired masters units (David, 2001; Nisperos, 2001; Razon, 1994; Belino, 1991).

6. Monthly Salary

Last 2006, a Philippine public school teacher receives P9939 per month. However, according to National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC), last 2003 the average income of the family of six in the National Capital Region must be P557 daily or P16,710 per month to sustain their needs. Virola (2007) reported that the salary of teachers in the Philippines is between P9,000 to P11,000 monthly.

Private school teachers, belonging to non-agricultural sector un Cavite, are mandated to receive at least the following minimum monthly salaries: P6,600 (Bacoor and Imus); P6,204 (Carmona, Cavite City, Dasmarinas, General Trias and Rosario); P6,094 (Kawit, Silang, Tagaytay City, Tanza, Trece Martires City, and General Mariano Alvarez); P5,478 (Indang, Naic, Noveleta and Ternate); and, P5,324 (Alfonso, Amadeo, General Aguinaldo, Magallanes, Maragondon, and Mendez).