TL;DR: No single law defines a Philippine teacher. Four instruments do most of it. Republic Act No. 7836 (1994) makes teaching a licensed profession under the Board for Professional Teachers at the PRC. Republic Act No. 4670, the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers, approved 18 June 1966, sets working conditions in public schools, including the rule that a teacher may not be required to render more than six hours of actual classroom teaching a day, and that co-curricular and out-of-school work beyond normal duties is paid at least 25 per cent additional compensation. The Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers, Board Resolution No. 435, governs conduct and is enforced through the licence. DepEd Order No. 42, s. 2017 adopted the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers, with 7 domains, 37 strands and four career stages, as the competency framework. Public school teachers are covered by all four. Private school teachers are covered by two of them.
Ask what governs a Philippine teacher and you usually get one of two unhelpful answers: "DepEd" or "the Code of Ethics." Neither is complete, and the gap matters when something concrete is at stake, a teaching load, an unpaid Saturday activity, a complaint, a promotion.
This guide sets out the four instruments that actually define the job, what each one fixes, and which of them reach a private school teacher. It is an explainer rather than a directory, and where a topic has its own guide on this site, it is linked instead of repeated.
The Four Instruments
| Instrument | Year | Issued by | What it governs | Who it reaches |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Act No. 7836, Philippine Teachers Professionalization Act | 1994 | Congress | The licence, the examination, grounds for licence sanctions | All licensed teachers, public and private |
| Republic Act No. 4670, Magna Carta for Public School Teachers | 1966 | Congress | Recruitment, tenure, hours, leave, welfare | Public school teachers, excluding SUC professorial staff |
| Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers, Board Resolution No. 435 | 1997 | Board for Professional Teachers, PRC | Professional and personal conduct | Preschool to secondary teachers, public and private |
| Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers, DepEd Order No. 42, s. 2017 | 2017 | DepEd | Teaching competencies across career stages | DepEd teachers, and used widely as a reference elsewhere |
The overlaps are the useful part. A public school teacher sits inside all four at once. A private school teacher sits inside RA 7836 and the Code of Ethics, but not the Magna Carta, whose Section 2 applies it to public school teachers. That single distinction explains most of the confusion in staff-room arguments about what a teacher is entitled to.
The Licence: Who Is a Teacher
Republic Act No. 7836, the Philippine Teachers Professionalization Act of 1994, created the Board for Professional Teachers under the Professional Regulation Commission and made teaching in Philippine basic education a licensed profession. The route in is a degree, the Licensure Examination for Teachers, and registration with the Board. The Act was later amended by Republic Act No. 9293 (2004), which changed provisions on qualifications, registration without examination and para-teachers.
Two consequences people miss:
- The licence is national and follows the person, not the employer. It is why a private school teacher can be the subject of a PRC complaint, and why moving between a private and a public school does not require a new licence.
- Section 23 of RA 7836 lists the grounds on which the Board may act against a licence, including conviction for a criminal offence, immoral or dishonourable conduct, malpractice, gross negligence, and fraud in obtaining a certificate.
Our guide on how to become a teacher in the Philippines covers the route in detail, from the degree through the Licensure Examination for Teachers to registration.
The Magna Carta: What Public School Teaching Owes You
Republic Act No. 4670, approved 18 June 1966, is the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers. It is old, it is still in force, and it contains several of the most-quoted and most-misquoted provisions in Philippine education.
Section 2 sets the scope. The Act applies to all public school teachers except those in the professorial staff of state colleges and universities, and the term teacher covers classroom teachers at all levels, guidance counsellors, school librarians, industrial arts and vocational instructors, and all persons in supervisory or administrative positions in government schools. School nurses, physicians and dentists are expressly excluded.
The provisions worth knowing precisely:
| Section | What it provides |
|---|---|
| 13 | A teacher in actual classroom instruction shall not be required to render more than six hours of actual classroom teaching a day, scheduled to leave time for preparation and correction of exercises. Where the exigencies of the service require it, more than six but not more than eight hours may be required, on payment of the regular rate plus at least 25 per cent of basic pay |
| 14 | Co-curricular and out-of-school activities, and any other activity outside normal duties, are paid additional compensation of at least 25 per cent of regular remuneration, after the teacher has completed at least six hours of actual classroom teaching a day |
| 22 | Compulsory medical examination free of charge before a teacher takes up teaching, repeated at least once a year during professional life |
| 24 | Study leave of not more than one school year after seven years of service, with compensation of at least 60 per cent of monthly salary |
Section 14 is the one most often quoted as a flat entitlement to extra pay for any school activity. Read it whole: the additional compensation attaches to activities outside normal duties, after six hours of actual classroom teaching in the day. Section 13 is the one most often quoted as a cap on total working hours. It is not; it caps actual classroom teaching, and the ancillary duties of the job sit outside that number.
Disclaimer: this is an explainer, not advice on a specific claim. Entitlements under RA 4670 interact with Civil Service rules, DepEd issuances and division-level guidance, and the process for claiming any of them is set locally. Take a live question to your Schools Division Office or your teacher organisation.
Conduct: The Code of Ethics
The Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers is Board Resolution No. 435 of the Board for Professional Teachers, adopted under RA 7836. It is not a DepEd order, and it is enforced through the licence rather than through employment.
It has 13 articles, each naming a relationship: the State, the community, the profession, the teaching community, higher authorities, school officials and personnel, learners, parents, business, and the teacher as a person, plus disciplinary action and effectivity. Article I limits it to preschool, primary, elementary and secondary levels in both public and private schools, and to supervisors and administrators at those levels. Higher education faculty are not covered by it as such.
Our full guide to the Code of Ethics walks through all 13 articles and the split between the PRC licence track and the DepEd employment track. The article most often searched on its own is Article IV, the teacher and the profession, which is where the continuing professional development obligation sits.
Competence: The PPST
DepEd Order No. 42, s. 2017 adopted the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers, which sets out what teacher quality means in the K to 12 system through 7 domains and 37 strands, across four career stages: Beginning, Proficient, Highly Proficient and Distinguished.
The seven domains are content knowledge and pedagogy; the learning environment; diversity of learners; curriculum and planning; assessment and reporting; community linkages and professional engagement; and personal growth and professional development.
The PPST is not a conduct code and carries no licence sanction. It is what performance appraisal is measured against, and it is the reference point for promotion and professional development planning. Republic Act No. 11713, the Excellence in Teacher Education Act, approved 27 April 2022, sits behind it, strengthening the Teacher Education Council, institutionalising the National Educators' Academy of the Philippines and creating scholarships for teacher education students.
Pay, Benefits and Getting Hired
These have their own guides on this site because they change more often than the statutes do, and because the numbers are what people actually search for.
- Pay. Public school teaching salaries follow the government salary grade system, with allowances layered on top. Our teacher salary guide covers the grade table, the allowances and what actually lands in the account.
- Benefits. Bonuses, GSIS coverage, loans, leave credits. Our DepEd teacher benefits guide covers what is standing and what is announced annually.
- Getting hired. DepEd hiring runs on its own guidelines and a registry of qualified applicants; our DepEd teacher hiring requirements guide sets out the documents and the process.
Private school employment works differently at every point: the contract governs, labour law applies, and salary scales are set by the school. The licence requirement is the one thing that does not change.
What to Check Before You Rely on Any of This
- Ask which instrument a rule comes from. Licence, employment, conduct and competence are four different questions with four different answers.
- Check whether the issuance is current. Several DepEd orders that dominate search results have been repealed, including on grading, awards and lesson preparation. Material online is slow to catch up.
- Read Section 13 and Section 14 of RA 4670 in full before quoting either. Both have conditions attached that summaries drop.
- Take local questions locally. Division offices issue their own supplementary guidance, and it differs.
Ready to find the right school? Browse schools or explore more guides for Philippine educators on SchoolFinderPH.
Sources
- Republic Act No. 4670 — The Magna Carta for Public School Teachers (full text)
- Republic Act No. 7836 — Philippine Teachers Professionalization Act of 1994 (full text)
- Republic Act No. 9293 — amending RA 7836 (full text)
- Republic Act No. 11713 — Excellence in Teacher Education Act (full text)
- PRC — Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers, Board Resolution No. 435 (official PDF)
- DepEd — DO 42, s. 2017: National Adoption and Implementation of the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (official PDF)
- SchoolFinderPH — How to Become a Teacher in the Philippines
- SchoolFinderPH — Teacher Salary in the Philippines
