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Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Batasan Hills, Quezon City 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
First Regular Session 
HOUSE BILL No. _____ 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Introduced by  
ACT Teachers Party-List Rep. FRANCE L. CASTRO,  
GABRIELA Women’s Party Rep. ARLENE D. BROSAS,  
and KABATAAN Party-List Rep. RAOUL DANNIEL A. MANUEL 
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THE EDUCATION SUPPORT PERSONNEL ACT (ESPERA) 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
Public and private school teachers are generally overworked and underpaid. They 
are burdened with non-teaching tasks, and even in instances where they are given only 
teaching-related tasks, they would need to work overtime to get things done.  The lack 
of sufficient education jobs—plantilla items in the public sector and job openings in the 
private sector—forces teachers to act as nurses, librarians, encoders, and processors for 
school data, janitors, security guards, and others, causing them severe overwork and 
contributes to the decline of quality of education in general. 
It is in this context that the Philippines should require schools to hire education 
support personnel such as teacher aides.  A number of countries have been doing it for 
some time now.  This draft bill will help the Philippines do it too.  Though the 
Department of Education has released DepEd Order 32, series of 2020 which in effect, 
allows public schools to hire education support personnel as needed—a laudable 
move—it only orders the engagement of Learning Support Aides through contracts of 
service or job orders. 
This short-term engagement of education workers and the vicarious employment 
and resulting absence of decent work conditions, even exploitation in most cases are 
some of the concerns raised by Education International (EI), a global union federation 
representing organizations of teachers and other education employees, launched the first 
July 11, 2022
2:43 pm
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World Education Support Personnel Day on May 16, 2018 during the first conference 
on Education Support Personnel in Brussels, Belgium. 
In said conference, EI adopted the Declaration on the Rights and Status of 
Education Support Personnel.  This landmark document affirms that administration of 
quality education is impossible without teaching assistants; registrars and clerks; school 
doctors, nurses, and psychologists, guidance counselors; librarians; and the rest of 
professional, administrative, technical, and general staff working in education sector. 
Aside from education workers’ labor rights, EI also urged that government promote and 
protect their civil and political rights, such as the right to organize and bargain 
collectively—which EI partly attributed to outsourcing, labor cost-cutting and austerity 
measures, and privatization in the education sector. 
The proposal furthered in this bill, in particular, the hiring of education support 
personnel in public and private schools, are steps toward addressing these concerns. 
For the foregoing reasons, urgent approval of this bill is sought. 
________________________________ 
Rep. FRANCE L. CASTRO 
ACT Teachers Party-List 
________________________________ 
Rep. ARLENE D. BROSAS 
GABRIELA Women’s Party 
________________________________ 
Rep. RAOUL DANNIEL A. MANUEL 
KABATAAN Party-List 


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Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Batasan Hills, Quezon City 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
First Regular Session 
HOUSE BILL No. _____ 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Introduced by  
ACT Teachers Party-List Rep. FRANCE L. CASTRO,  
GABRIELA Women’s Party Rep. ARLENE D. BROSAS,  
and KABATAAN Party-List Rep. RAOUL DANNIEL A. MANUEL 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
THE EDUCATION SUPPORT PERSONNEL ACT (ESPERA) 
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines 
assembled. 
SECTION 1. Short Title. This Act shall be known as “The Education Support 
Personnel Act (ESPERA).” 
SEC. 2. Declaration of State Policy. The policy of the State to help teachers in their 
pursuit of quality education while maintaining a good work-life balance too, is hereby 
recognized and implemented. 
SEC. 3. Coverage. This Act shall cover all public and private basic education schools 
from Kindergarten to Grade 12. 
For purposes of this Act, “education support personnel” refers to a wide range of 
professional, administrative, technical, and general staff working within the education 
sector such as teaching assistants; school doctors, nurses, and psychologists; registrars 
and clerks; guidance counselors; librarians; and bus drivers, among others. 
SEC. 4. Mandatory Hiring of Education Support Personnel in Public Schools. The 
Department of Education is hereby instructed to open up plantilla positions to hire 
education support personnel based on each school’s current and projected needs. 
To this end, the Department of Education shall work with the Department of 
Budget and Management to ensure that there is sufficient number of plantilla positions 
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for education support personnel in every public elementary and high school.  They shall 
likewise endeavor to meet the ideal education support personnel-student population 
ratios. 
 
SEC. 5. Hiring of Education Support Personnel in Private Schools. Subject to the 
implementing rules and regulations of this Act, the State will help private schools 
comply with the policy of hiring education support personnel within a reasonable period 
of time.   
 
SEC. 6. Funding. The amounts necessary for the initial implementation of this Act shall 
be charged against the savings of the Department of Education.  Thereafter, the funds 
shall be provided in the annual General Appropriations Act. 
 
SEC. 7. Implementing Rules and Regulations. The Department of Budget and 
Management and the Department of Education, in consultation with representatives of 
teachers’ organizations, labor unions, labor federations, and private school owners will 
promulgate the rules and regulations necessary to implement this Act not later than three 
(3) months from its effectivity. 
 
SEC. 8. Separability Clause.  If any part or provision of this Act is held  
unconstitutional or invalid, the other parts or provision hereof which are not affected  
thereby shall continue to be in full force and effect.  
 
SEC. 9. Repealing Clause.  All laws, decrees, executive orders, proclamations, rules 
and regulations, and other issuances, or parts thereof which are inconsistent with the 
provisions of this Act, are hereby repealed or modified accordingly. 
 
SEC. 10. Effectivity Clause. This Act shall take effect upon its publication in at least 
two (2) national newspapers of general circulation. 
 
 
Approved,