Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 2) — A Senate bill seeks to raise the salary grade (SG) of school guidance counselors to address the shortage of professionals, promoting mental health services in private and public educational institutions.
The proposed bill pushes to increase the pay of Guidance Counselor I from SG 11 (P25,439) to SG 16 (P38,150), Guidance Counselor II from SG 12 (P27,608) to SG 17 (P41,508), and Guidance Counselor III from SG 13 (P29,798) to SG 18 (P45,203).
Senator Win Gatchalian filed the Basic Education Mental Health and Well-Being Promotion Act, which pushes for services that could counter the negative effects of the pandemic on the mental and emotional health of learners, teachers and other non-teaching staff.
The senator pointed out that the country now has 4,069 guidance counselors as of June 2022, since the first batch took the licensure examinations in 2008.
Gatchalian said that with 27.4 million elementary and high school schools, the desired ratio of 1:500 guidance counselor to students is not being met.
“Titiyakin natin na ang ating mga paaralan ay may sapat na bilang ng mga propesyonal at dalubhasa pagdating sa mental health. Napapanahon ito lalo na’t patuloy tayong bumabangon mula sa pinsala ng pandemya, kung saan nakita natin ang matinding pinsala sa mental health ng ating mga guro at mga mag-aaral,” said Gatchalian.
[Translation: Let us make sure that our schools have enough professionals who are experts on mental health. This is timely as we are rising from the effects of the pandemic where we have seen its adverse impact on teachers and students’ mental health.]
The proposed measure also seeks to hire mental health professionals for deployment to public elementary, secondary and vocational institutions.
