Bulacan Teachers Are Buying Their Own Printer Ink Because DepEd's Allowance Hasn't Moved Since 2019
The cash advance for chalk, ink, and bond paper is still ₱5,000. A printer cartridge alone now eats half of that.
Public school teachers in Bulacan are buying their own printer ink, bond paper, and folders again this school year. The DepEd cash advance, the ₱5,000 once called the chalk allowance, has not moved since 2019. A single original ink cartridge now costs roughly half of that.
Teachers do the math out loud in faculty rooms. One cartridge, one ream of bond paper a week, one set of cartolina for a quarterly project, and the allowance is gone before the first periodical exam. The rest comes out of a salary that already pays for rent, transport, and a parent's maintenance meds.
The receipts no one reimburses
Walk into any public elementary school in Bulacan and you will find a printer in the corner of the faculty room that the teachers themselves chipped in to buy. The ink is bought in cash, often from a refilling station two jeepney rides away because the original cartridges are unaffordable. The receipts pile up in a drawer because no liquidation form covers them.
Modular printing did not end with the pandemic. Worksheets, parent letters, learning recovery materials, intervention packets for kids still catching up from 2020, all of it gets printed by the adviser. The school's official MOOE budget covers utilities, minor repairs, and a thin slice of supplies that the principal has to stretch across every grade level.
The 2019 number in 2026 prices
The ₱5,000 figure was set when bond paper was around ₱180 a ream. It is now closer to ₱250 in most Bulacan groceries. Ink, toner, and even the cheap brown envelopes that go home with report cards have all climbed. The allowance has not been adjusted across two administrations and at least three education secretaries.
Teacher groups have asked for an increase to ₱10,000 for years. The response from the department has mostly been studies, working groups, and assurances that a review is ongoing. Meanwhile the school year keeps starting, and someone has to print the attendance sheets.
What the unpaid ink actually pays for
This is unpaid labor with a receipt. Every cartridge a teacher buys is a subsidy from a public school employee to a public school system. The salary grade increase that was promised through the SSL adjustments does not cover this gap because the gap is not in the salary line. It is in the supplies line that was never funded properly to begin with.
The kids notice when worksheets come in faded gray because the teacher is rationing ink. Parents notice when the adviser asks for a ₱20 contribution per student to cover printing for the quarter, which is technically not allowed but quietly happens in classrooms across Bulacan, Pampanga, and Nueva Ecija.
The fix is not complicated. Raise the allowance, index it to actual prices, release it on time instead of mid-quarter. Until then, teachers in Meycauayan, Malolos, and San Jose del Monte will keep walking into the ink refilling station with their own cash, printing tomorrow's worksheets on tonight's salary.
