SURIGAO CITY, Surigao del Norte — The monthly salaries of close to 100 public elementary and secondary school teachers employed this school year by the provincial government of Surigao del Norte has been increased by 100 percent by Gov. Sol Forcadilla-Matugas, it was learned here.

Matugas announced that the usual P3,000 monthly remuneration of each of the newly-hired locally-paid mentors, including those deployed on Siargao Island, has been increased to P6,000 retroactive last June.

Matugas, who earlier served as regional director of the Department of Education (DepEd) initially in her home region of Caraga and later in Eastern Visayas, added that she also appropriated additional P1,000 chalk allowance to each of the new tutors every December.

Noting that the current monthly compensation of newly employed mentors “is too measly for the overworked classroom teachers,” Matugas disclosed that one of the first things she did in her recent initial meeting with the provincial school board – where she sits as chairperson – was to approve the initial allocation of some P4 million for the salaries and allowances of the molders of the youth until December, 2010.

She pledged to further upgrade the teachers’ pay next fiscal year and every year thereafter, depending on the availability of local funds, until their remuneration will nearly level off with their DepEd-paid counterparts who now receive over P15,000 a month.

Matugas explained that being a former educator who rose from the ranks, she believes that upgrading teachers’ salaries is the most effective way of uplifting their morale “so they can perform their classroom work more effectively and efficiently and ultimately produce quality students, some of whom may later become future leaders of the province.”

At the same time, the lady governor appealed to municipal and village leaders to extend their all-out support to educators deployed in their locality saying the delivery of quality basic education “is everybody’s business.”