Speech-CHED Strategies for Teacher Ed

8/8/2019 Speech-CHED Strategies for Teacher Ed

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CONFERENCE ADDRESS

by

DR. NILO L. ROSASCommissioner, Professional Regulation

Commission

STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING TEACHEREDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES

CHED Function Rm., Ground Fl, HEDC Building,CP Garcia Avenue, UP Diliman, Quezon City

December 15, 2009

1. INTRODUCTION

Mga kasamahan, kaagapay, kabalikat,kapamilya, kapuso, kapatid sa ngalan ng

edukasyon, isang maganda at mapagpalang

umaga sa inyong lahat. I am honored and

privileged to join you today. I congratulate the

CHED, particularly Commissioner Nenalyn P.

Defensor, for her initiative in holding this

momentous undertaking by which we,

educators, are gathered together to quote

unquote Save the Normal Schools in the

Philippines.

In this conference, I am tasked to speak about

the Strategies for Improving Teacher

Education in the Philippines. As a product

and a producer of a Normal Institution, this

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topic is close and actually holds special

significance- to my heart. Thus, despite a busy

schedule at work, this opportunity to give my

one cent worth on the topic before thePresidents and Deans of Colleges Education of

the Centers of Excellence and Centers of

Development in Teacher Education and notable

educators coming from state universities and

colleges, is something I indeed relish.

Of course, there are a myriad of educators out

there who would likewise state their strong

opinions about this topic, and I cannot help but

wonder why the Honorable Nenalyn Defensor,

singled me out for this Forum.

As some of you may be well aware,

Commissioner Defensor and I shared a

wonderful history together, one for the books

so to speak. She was at one time my student

at PWU in her doctoral studies and she was the

one of the best, if not perhaps the best,

students Ive ever had. Then, as the wheel of

fate turned, I became under her at the UP

College of Education as a part-time faculty

when I retired from DECS and she as

Chairperson of the Educational Administration

Department, making her my boss, then. As the

twist of fate would have it, the wheel for us

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again turned, I became the President of PNU,

where she, representing the CHED Chairman,

became the Chairman of the Board of Regents

of PNU. Ika nga, ang buhay nga naman, gayang mundo, ay bilog. Kung minsan ikay nasa

itaas, kung minsan namay nasa ibaba. At

this point, the wheel that joined us is in

equilibrium, herself now as the Honorable

CHED Commissioner, and myself, as PRC

Commissioner. Of course, we are serving two

completely different agencies of the National

Government, but somehow forged and shared

by a common vision of Education. One would

wonder how the wheel would turn for us again.

Coincidence, perhaps? The other possible

reason is that we are both products of former

Teacher Education Institutions which were

formerly normal schools: myself hailing from

the Philippine Normal College which is now the

PNU, and herself from the Iloilo Normal

Schools, which is now the West Visayas State

University or WVSU.

However fate would play its trick on us, we will

always be, as we have always been,

maintaining a collegial relationship, where we

are both fellow learners.

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2. INTROSPECTION

Moving forward to the topic assigned to me,

allow me to quote a well-renowed Czech writerin the name of Vaclav Havel, who stated that

Every Education is a Kind of Inward Journey,

I deem it appropriate to talk about Normal

Schools culling out some nuggets of thoughts

and wisdom derived from my own experiences.

As a disclaimer, please do not misconstrue this

as bragging, neither be labeled as antique,

although I must tell you, I am getting there,

bordering in antiquity, having recently

acquired a dual citizenship: a Filipino

citizenship and a senior citizenship.

The personal experiences I shall be divulging

with you about are the experiences I have

gained:

1) as a student of teacher education at the

Philippine Normal College where I took

up BSEEd in 1962 to 1966;

2) a consumer of teachers when I was DECS-

NCR regional director and as

Undersecretary;

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3) as a producer of teachers when I was

president of PNU and faculty of Baguio

Vocational Normal School and professor

of several graduate schools; and

4) as a quality assurance manager and

standard setter when I was a Director of

the Bureau of Higher Education which is

now the CHED, when we set the Policies

and Standards for Teacher Education in

1986; and as a Chairman of the Board of

Professional Teacher of the PRC from

1995 to 1998, and now as the

Commissioner of PRC.

Make no mistake about it, what I will be stating

is nothing new, nothing you never had heard

before, because the problems are there from

the very start already, and the solution and

recommendations, although have been harped

at constantly, are yet to be fully implemented

and materialized.

My presentation this morning will be divided

into several parts, namely:

PART 1: Saving the Normal School, the

Concept of a Normal School, its

definition, ;

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PART 2:Global and Local Actualities and

Specific issues in teacher education

PART 3: Strategies for Improving

Teacher Education

PART 4. Reforms in Teacher Education

in the Philippines:

1. The Presidential Task

Force on Education

2. The Teacher Education and

Development Program; and

3. The National Competency-

Based Teacher Standards

PART 5: Updates on PRC and the

Licensure Examination for Teachers

PART 6: Concluding Statement

PART 1.SAVING THE NORMAL SCHOOLS

Before we go on any further in saving the

normal schools, it is important that we

understand the concept of a Normal School,

and why Normal?

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The phrase normal school originated from the

French ecole normal in which enrolment was

limited only to the cerebral few. The concept

was eventually borrowed by the Englishacademicians, then the American who brought

it to the Philippines.

The Philippine Normal School (PNS) was the

first normal school established in September 1,

1901 by the then superintendent of schools for

the Philippine Archipelago by the name of

Captain Albert Todd who recommended to

William Howard Taft, the first civil governor of

the Philippines that a Department of

Instruction be established with the Philippine

Normal School under its wings. With the

passage of Act. No. 74 of the Second Philippine

Commission, PNS became autonomous, more

than ready for the education of the natives of

the islands in the science of teaching.

Other normal schools opened in the Philippines

later; namely: the Ilocos Normal School, the

Albay Provincial Normal School, the Iloilo

Normal Schook, the Cebu Normal School, the

Zamboanga Normal School, the Bayambang

Normal School, the Leyte Normal School; and

the Bukidnon Normal School.

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Notably, the Thomasites who came to the

Philippines in 1901 to teach at the PNS and in

some parts of the Philippines were mainly

normal school graduates from the UnitedStates.

Oral accounts from some prominent people

whose parents graduated from the normal

school point to rigid but rewarding experiences

they had in the institutions. All shared

memorable insights into their 2-year or 4-year

study. Speaking in Filipino or in any language

or dialect other than English was taboo, if not

fined (this was understandable since the

imposition of a foreign language implied

politicalization or subjugation); co-curricular

activities like debates, acting, singing, and

sports were mandatory to balance the

academic life of students; and adhering the

dress code was followed to give dignity to the

teaching profession.

It is no exaggeration to say that many of past

and current legislators and key officials of the

country had parents or relatives who were

normal school graduates. For example, in

PNS/PNC, graduates include Superintendent

Antonio Maceda, the father of former Senator

Ernesto Maceda. The father of Senator

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Santanina Rasul, the mother of President

Corazon Aquino, the Mother of Chief Justice

Marcelo Fernan, and the mother of President

Fidel Ramos and Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani. Even President Ferdinand Marcos

parents, Mariano Marcos and Josefa Edralin,

were classmates at the PNS. Same with the

mother of Former First Lady Ming Ramos, Ms.

Josefa Martinez, parents of Ms. Helena Benitez,

Mr. Conrado Benitez and Ms. Francisca Tirona,

to name a few. All of them take pride in the

normal school education, in the rigid discipline,

the unrelenting pursuit for excellence, and the

unflagging commitment to public or private

work.

THE CURRICULUM

Compared to the present curriculum, the old

programs of study included the following

courses: from the freshman to sophomore

years oral expression, arithmetic, elementary

geography, Philippine history, physiology,

hygiene, and nature study; junior year

algebra, political and commercial geography,

general history, botany and physics; and senior

year geometry, US History and civics,

ecology, chemistry and observation.

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In 1903, the length of the teaching program

was four years, so that to be admitted, an

applicant had to be at least 14 years old and a

graduate of the intermediate group or level. InSY 1905-1906, a training school was put up and

education was introduced in the third year. To

bridge the gap between theory and practice,

practice teaching was held in the preparatory

classes directed by a critic teacher and

supplemented by a general course in

education. From 1911 to 1916, the PNS

offered four types of curricula above the

curricula level: the four-year regular normal,

the special 2-year domestic science, and a one-

year course (made a 2-year course in 1920)

which was introduced for supervising teachers

and principals.

EFFECTS OF THE MONROE SURVEY

Authorized by Acts No. 3162 and 319*6, Dr.

Paul Monroe chaired the first comprehensive

survey of the Philippine Educational System in

1925. Its salient findings revealed, among

other things, that: 1) 95% of the teachers

lacked professional training; and 2) teachers

received ineffective instruction and

supervision. Data of the survey were gathered

by testing 3,200 pupils and more than 1,000

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teachers, interviews, observations, and

examinations of school children records and of

the school.

The impact of these findings on the different

normal school was made manifest by:

1) requiring four years of training beyond the

completion of the 7th grade;

2) making training strictly professional in

character;

3) offering training only to selected

students;

4) staffing the normal school largely be

American teachers to carry out successfully

the English program; and

5) providing adequate facilities for

observation and practice teaching.

In the 1950s to the 60s, the different normal

schools started having practicing students

interns undergo off-campus training in their

hometown or barrios. The Department of

Student Teaching supervised this activity. The

concept of community block entailed having

the students go to barrio schools all over the

country for a week, accompanied by their

professors, to observe classes so as to

operationalize or contextualize the state-of-

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the-art teaching with the conditions obtaining

at the grassroots. Hence the immersion in the

harsher realities in the field was much earlier

than before.

Integration was the buzzword in elementary

schools in the 1950s to the next decade. This

teaching trend or educational concept enabled

teachers and students to integrate lessons in

the major and minor areas from English,

match, science, and social studies, to the arts,

music and PE, even work education to enable

students to learn the totality of things, rather

than compartmentalize them. In the summer

of 1953, at PNC for example, more than 2,000

teachers all over the country attended

demonstration lessons in integration. Notably,

the demand of integration more masterful

teachers at home in various skills, intense

preparations, not to mention availability of

books and other teaching paraphernalia

attracted a number of practitioners, but raised

the eyebrows of doubting Thomases,

supervisors, and teachers themselves,

especially in barrio schools where ill-prepared

teachers and the paucity of teaching materials

posed perennial problems.

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PART 2.ACTUALITIES OF TEACHER EDUCATION

(LOCAL AND GLOBAL)

In a book aptly entitled School, Society and theProfessional Educator, Frank H. Blakington III

of Michigan State University and Robert S.

Patterson of the University of Alberta, assert

that no other profession involves its members

so closely with the community in which

practice is performed as does teaching.

Physicians treat individual patients, lawyers

counsel clients, ministers or priests or pastors

save their own congregations, engineers deal

with material projects, architects design

buildings, and social workers investigate

selected cases. Teachers, in contrast,

particularly those in the public schools, in

addition to instructing the children assigned to

their care, must work with practically the

whole community.

So vital is the work of the teachers in the total

community that schools are often blamed for a

variety of inadequacies that may from time to

time become apparent in communities.

Rarely, to illustrate the point further, would a

community blame the medical profession for

an epidemic, nor would the heavy traffic toll be

charged to engineers, poor laws to lawyers,

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slums to architects, or juvenile delinquency to

social workers. Yet people do not hesitate to

condemn schools and teachers when young

people and the adults fail to exhibit maturepatterns of behavior, when results of the

ASEAN competitive examinations in math and

science fall below national expectations, or

when materialism, rather than human and

moral concerns, tends to dominate interests of

people.

This observation finds support in the EDCOM

Report which posited that the teachers far

reaching influence as an agent of constructive

change in society is beyond question, so that

any policy or programs the government adopts

must necessarily depend on the educational

system and the nation at large.

On a wider horizon, a study of Teacher

Education Reform collaboratively undertaken

by educators from five ASEAN countries

(Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia

and Thailand) acknowledged that teachers in

their respective countries are expected to

perform multiple roles.

Among others, they are looked up to as agents

of social change, resource persons and

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consultants, role models, custodians, arbiters,

professionals, and parents. As such, they are

expected to provide leadership in community

projects, organize education programs for thecommunity, and disseminate to the same

community.

No wonder the teacher gets blamed for every

misdemeanor an elementary school or college

graduate, or even an out-of-school youth,

commits, or for some event the community

fails to celebrate. Indeed, depending on how

well one plays his/her part, the teacher could

make or unmake a person or even a nation.

From the foregoing observations, it is obvious

that teachers play a paramount role in national

development.

SHOW/FLASH ON THE SCREEN POEM ENTITLED:

PRETTY GOOD

PART 3.STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING TEACHER

EDUCATION

Which leads me to the heart of the topic of this

paper, which is to provide some strategies in

improving teacher education in the Philippines.

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I must say that this conference is doubly

significant in such a way that it deals on a

topic most often if not always, singled out as a

critical factor in the educational system: thehuman capital or the teacher, and that the

specific topic assigned to me speaks of a

response for a continuing update on teacher

education, cognizant of the ever imminent

obsolescence of knowledge that happens in so

short a time brought about by the information

revolution characteristic of the 21st century.

The convocation takes as its starting point the

view that teachers have a key role to play in

contributing to educational development and

improvement. This would appear to be a self

evident truism since there is little doubt from

available evidence that this is clearly the case.

It is therefore essential that we recruit the

most capable and appropriate people into the

teaching profession, provide them with a high

quality, competency-based pre-service

program of teacher education, and then ensure

they have opportunities to upgrade their

knowledge and skills over the full length of

their professional career. To attract and then

keep the most able people in the teaching

service requires us to pay great attention to

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such matters as finding ways to increase the

status of teachers, and to providing reward

structures and career and promotion

pathways, which reflect the important roleteachers play in an effective education system.

If we accept that the quality of any education

system ultimately depends upon the quality of

teachers, and that no country can rise above

the level of its teachers, then the matter of

teacher development is one which deserves

our urgent, careful and continued attention.

And to paraphrase the late Dr. Vic Ordonez of

UNESCO, the demands of the present and the

future cannot be taught with tools of the past.

Indeed, there is the urgency to be sensitive to

the needs of the times and use the

corresponding appropriate tools in coping with

such.

Not a few lament the deterioration of

education in the country. Education scholars

as well as laymen - each has something to say,

and most often if not always, the claim is: the

teacher is one major culprit for the poor

performance of students. In In The Philippine

Star of December 10, 2009 , Babe Romualdez

has this to say: The quality of education in

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this country has been deteriorating over the

years especially with many of our good

teachers leaving for better paying jobs

abroad ILO/UNESCO in itsRecommendations Concerning the Status of

Teachers calls our attention on how teaching

should be viewed. Quoted by Gu-Ming Yuan

(2005) ILO/UNESCO in its recommendations

states , that teaching should be regarded

as a profession; it is a form of public service

which requires of teachers expert knowledge

and specialized skills required and maintained

through rigorous and continuing study.

In the same breath, only just recently, in a

budget hearing for my agency which I

represented in the Senate, Senator Ed Angara

struck me with a question of how come the

statistics in licensure examination for teachers

leave much to be desired. This leaves me

dumbfounded, by which I could only muster

that the quality is very much dependent on the

output.

LET ME NOW DIRECT YOUR ATTENTION TO THE

SCREEN SHOWING IN GRAPHICAL

REPRESENTATION OF THE STATISTICS OF THE

LICENSURE EXAMINATION FOR THE

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ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY TEACHERS

FROM 2004 UP TO PRESENT, 2009.

National Performance for the LicensureExamination for

TEACHERSfrom 2004 -2009

ELEMENTARY LEVELCalendar

YearExamine

es PassersPercenta

ge

CY 2004 60,470

16,2

97 26.95%

CY 2005 67,216

18,5

17 27.55%

CY 2006 59,355

17,3

77 29.28%

CY 2007 66,706

18,3

76 27.55%

CY 2008 76,854

22,6

91 29.52%

CY 2009 67,183

15,5

15 23.09%

60,47016,297

67,21618,517

59,35517,377

66,70618,376

76,85422,691

67,18315,515

- 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000

CY 2004

CY 2005

CY 2006

CY 2007

CY 2008

CY 2009

ELEMENTARY (2004-2009)

Passers

Examin

National Performance for the Licensure

Examination for

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TEACHERSfrom 2004 - 2009

SECONDARY LEVELCalendarYear

Examinees

Passers

Percentage

CY 2004

58,4

15

15,

860 27.15%

CY 2005

61,5

04

15,

945 25.93%

CY 2006

53,2

60

17,

290 32.46%

CY 2007

57,7

22

16,

811 29.12%

CY 2008

67,9

61

22,

506 33.12%

CY 2009

62,2

39

16,

706 26.84%

58,41515,860

61,50415,945

53,26017,290

57,72216,811

67,96122,506

62,23916,706

- 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000

CY 2004

CY 2005

CY 2006

CY 2007

CY 2008

CY 2009

SECONDARY (2004-2009)

Passer

Examin

I mentioned to Sec. Angara that when before

the best and the brightest go to Normal

Universities to pursue teaching education,

now, teacher education became only the fall

back course from the bottom 60% of the NCEE

and NSAT test takers. Teachers salaries in

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both the public or private schools in our

country took dramatic drops in real income

terms, and the corresponding status and

prestige of teachers in our society likewisedropped. A vicious downward cycle began, as

status and salaries dropped, the quality of

those attracted to the teaching profession also

dropped and succeeding generations of

teachers proved incapable of earning the

respect of their more talented predecessors.

STRATEGIES

How do we then reclaim our glory days and

improve teacher education in the country?

This inevitably brings us back to a classic

paradigm, i.e find out what is ailing the

system, what needs to be done. What are our

goals in teacher education? What are the

facilitative or detrimental factors to the

attainment of the goals? Baseline information

in current situation is needed to serve as basis

in identifying strategies to improve teacher

education. While there may be packaged

strategies in the literature, it makes a lot of

sense to be guided by information specific to

Philippine context We need information that

will

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1. provide information on the current state

of teacher education Institutions, curriculum,

faculty, students, etc.

2. identify gaps or problems that have to beattended to vis-a-vis present societal

demands

3. serve as guide for a blueprint in teacher

education responsive to present and future

needs

Allow me to revisit some factors which I

believe will help you and me think of strategies

to improve teacher education:

Characteristics of the Times

A. Societal context

Economic crisis, corruption in government

Who go into the teaching profession

Salary of teachers

Mobility of people

Technology- rich environment

Migration of teachers

Burn-out teachers

Knowledge-based economy

Globalization

Proliferation of information

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B. School context

New aims of teaching

New types of learnersChanging role of teachers

Isssue on feminization of teaching

Lack of classrooms

Multigrade classes

Cultural diversity in leaners

Mobilityof students

Inadequae instructional materials

Teacher qualifications

New spaces for learning on line, virtual,

etc.

Based on the above-characteristics of the

present context, what can be proposed to

improve the present state of teacher

education?

GENERAL RECOMMENDATION:

A. Strengthen teacher education institutions

Maintain specialized institutions for teacher

education. Comprehensive universities

flagship programs are not on teacher

education. Therefore not enough attention

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and resources are devoted to teacher

programs.

B. Teacher Education curriculum (preservicecurriculum) to give teacher a better profile-

Multi cultural orientation to be able to

handle diverse learners

Teachers that can balance capability to

implement a mandated curriculum for

learners with resourcefulness and

creativity to have one for diverse learners

Provide technology enhance

instruction (technology savvy)

Facilitates learning effectively

A balance of knowledge of subject

matter and pedagogical skills

Adaptive skills in coping with changing

learning contexts in schools Home study

programs and involvement of parents

Distance education, etc,

Cope with a world where knowledge is

becoming highly specialized

C. Design incentives to attract highly

qualified individuals to the teaching profession

D. Improved methods of teacher certification

and credentialing

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Over and above the board examination

by the PRC, certification in specialized

knowledge may be certified by accredited

institutions or professional organizationsor learned societies

Stronger researched-based training

programs or in service training programs

of varying modalities to meet peculiar

needs of teacher-clientele

Implement the Continuing Professional

Education for Teachers as a quality

assurance mechanism.

SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS:

E. Rationalization within a Moratorium Period,

of the creation and conversion of SUCs (Note:

Once a local high school/college is converted

into an SUC, it has an independent charter and

eventually offers a Teacher Education program,

thus adding to the proliferation of TEIs.

F. Faculty Development at the Tertiary Level

G. Strengthening Teacher Competencies at

the Basic Education Level

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F. Presidential Commission to Survey

Philippine Education (PCSPE),1970, Executive

Except for chartered state colleges would be

organized as members of three regionalUniversities for Luzon, Visayas, and

Mindanao. ........ all government teacher

training colleges would form the National

College of Teacher Education with the

Philippine Normal College as a nucleus.

G. PESS (Philippine Education Sector Study),

World Bank and ADB in coordination with NEDA

Aimed to analyze the government education

and training policies (including of course those

of teacher education) with current government

conditions, the implications of E&T of the

Philippines planned integration into the global

economy.

gave impetus to the School-based

management policy of DepEd

supported the policy on principal

empowerment

H. Medium Term Philippine National

Development Plan

Education Component

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Implement Early childhood Education in the

Teacher Education curricula

Close the classroom gaps

Build 6,000 classrooms a year

Adopt double shift classroom

Expand Service Contracting Scheme

Provide scholarships for students to

study in private high schools

Install Distance Learning in conflict

areas

Upgrade Math, Science and English

teaching and learning

Institutionalize values formation in

Day Care, Preparatory and Basic

Education

Upgrade Pre-Service and In-Service

Training of teachers

G. First Higher Education Biennial

Conference, CHED, Workshop 2

The teacher needs to be empowered in four

key result areas (KRA)

ability to teach reading andcomprehension

initiative and critical and creative

thinking

training in values education, and

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a familiarity in and use of instructional

technology

(Observation during conference:Unfortunately, only about one third of faculty

members in the Philippines have these

credentials)

The recommended strategies are not coming

from thin air. Observations, experiences

dictate them. However, hard evidence should

be obtained through needs analysis vis--vis

current state of teacher education and what is

desired. This should provide the robust back-

up for more definitive steps to improve teacher

education, one that will prepare teachers for

the kind of learners today . What was

presented earlier should be considered more of

a set of stimulus to set us further into thinking

collectively, dream dreams for our normal

schools and make those dreams come true.

Personal comments:

We have had enough plans, from the

presidential commissions composed of

prominent educators of the country, and

distinguished technocrats of our bureaucracy.

Implementation however has either been

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sluggish or would deviate from well-designed

plans/policies.

To illustrate, we have one of the many as anexample. The PCER Recommendation No. 2-

Rationalization within a Moratorium Period, of

the creation and conversion of SUCs. (The

direct relation of this conversion to Teacher

Education, is that a polytechnic or agricultural

college, once converted into a chartered state

institution, becomes free to offer a teaching

course, regardless of its readiness, depending

only on the decision of its Board of

Regents/Trustees)

PCER Recommendation No. 2 was imposed

through a presidential memo on October 7,

1999 to the effect that Administration would

not in any way support institutional creation or

conversion.

Nine years after however, in 2008, the

Presidential Task Force in Education (PTFE)

revealed that the President has declared that

his function is the prerogative of Congress and

expressed the policy not to interfere with the

work of the legislative body.

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In other instances, the President directed the

concerned agencies to implement

recommendations of presidential commission.

For instance, for PCER Recommendation No. 6-To strengthen teacher competencies ..... the

Office of the Presidential Assistant on

Education released the statement that the

President directed DepEd to focus on in-

service training of teachers especially English

(teachers who were not trained under the new

curriculum within the 24 units of English) and

that Her Excellency, the President said that

the DepEd should prioritize the development of

teachers skills in literacy, communication,

numeracy, critical thinking in the curriculum

for the National Competency-Based Teachers

Standards.

PART 4. REFORMS IN TEACHER EDUCATION

IN THE PHILIPPINES.

Based on the propositions I have earlier

mentioned, allow me now to give you some

inputs as to what the government

organizations and non-government

organizations are doing in reforming the

teacher education in the country. Let me begin

with :

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3.1.THE PRESIDENTIAL TASK FORCE ON

EDUCATION (PTFE) FRAMEWORK.

One of these is the recommendation from thePresidential Task Force on Education (PTFE).

Let me start by quoting from the living legend

in Education, the great Fr. Bienvenido Nebres,

SJ, President of Ateneo de Manila University

and President of the PTFE. He said that the

major challenge facing the Philippines

continues to be that of poverty. One of the sad

realities of the past decades has been that our

neighbors have made great strides in

overcoming poverty, but our progress has been

much slower. A key factor is education. The

Nobel-Prize winning economist, Amartya Sen,

says that, in his studies of countries that have

made great progress on overcoming poverty,

what stands out has been their focus on

improving education, especially basic

education. The New York Times headlined this

in May 27, 2002: To Build a Country, Build a

Schoolhouse. Amartya Sen says that poverty

is, of course, lack of resources. But the more

fundamental poverty is a lack of capability.

Capability comes above all from education and

health. We might give money to a poor

person, pero kung walang pinag-aralan o may

TB, the money will soon be gone.

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Thus, the Presidential Task Force on Education,

as a harmonizing body, created a roadmap

needed to implement the necessary reforms.These reforms, which are in the form of policy

recommendations, have corresponding action

plans and a monitoring and evaluation scheme

which uses the Philippine Main Education

Highway as the framework to achieve a

knowledge-based economy.

THE MAIN EDUCATION HIGHWAY

The Philippine Education Highway is

conceptualized by the Presidential Task Force

for Education to address the needs of the

education sector from basic, to technical and

vocational, to higher education, and until such

time that the students are ready for

employment. The Philippines is one of very

few countries in the world with three agencies

supervising and controlling the education

system. (Some people jokingly say there are

actually four with PRC as the fourth.) The

trifocalized system may have achieved the

needed focus for each subsector, namely: basic

education, tech-voc training, and higher

education. But there also appeared some

unintended results such as overlapping,

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duplication, non-coordination, and once in a

while outright turf war. This prompted the

President to create a National Coordinating

Council for Education (NCCE). But not muchhappened by way of harmonizing and

coordination of policies and programs. Thus

the President abolished the NCCE but

transferred its functions and mandates to the

Office of the Presidential Assistant for

Education (OPAE). To complement the OPAE in

the performance of its tasks, the Presidential

Task Force for Education was also created.

The Task Force started to work right away and

its initial output is a framework that will be the

basis for the development of the education

system. The framework is now known as the

Main Education Highway, which consists of the

vision of the Filipino family, the primary

investor in education, to make their sons and

daughters get the best possible education it

can afford so that at the end of the highway

they would be able to get the best possible

paying jobs available.

One of the mandates of the OPAE and PTFE is

to conduct a national congress on education

once every two years. On January 31 to

February 1, 2008 the First Biennial National

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Congress on Education was held at the Manila

Hotel, where no less than the President of the

Philippines was the keynote speaker.

ROADMAP

DepEd, CHED, TESDA, and PRC have each come

up with their own roadmaps.

Let me cull from the Report in the Book The

Philippine Main Education Highway: Towards a

Knowledge-Based Economy, the

recommendations that have implications to

teacher education:

One of the major recommendations is the

improvement of teachers competencies at the

basic education level.

By these, we mean teacher (1) Teachers on

becoming accountable The President noted

that alarming deterioration of teachers

competencies, particularly in the English

language. This is attributable to the weak pre-

service training which resulted in the

educators incompetence to teach basic skills.

Hence, the President called for the

strengthening of teachers in-service trainings.

The new General Education curriculum,

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according to the CHED Technical Panel,

includes: 24 units of the English language, 12

units of Science, 12 units of Mathematics, and

12 units of Social Sciences, adding up to a totalof 60 units. This sensible modification may

hopefully solve the problem of the present BS

education curriculum. On the other hand,

teachers who were not able to avail of this new

curriculum shall undergo intensive teacher

training to improve their competency.

The President instructed DepEd and CHED to

prioritize in the curriculum the hard-skills

(literacy, communication, numeracy, and

critical thinking) in its National Competency-

Based Teachers Standards (NCBTS). She said

that what seems to be the need at present is

to focus our attention to in-service teacher-

trainings, which is also in line with PCER

Recommendation No. 6: Strengthening

Teachers Competencies at the Basic Education

Level.

Efforts of the Philippine Government to create

a quality teaching force include new

approaches to accountability, designed and

implemented through teacher leadership and

the participation of large numbers of teachers.

These are packaged in coordination among the

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three educational agencies: DepEd, CHED, and

TESDA, and the fourth of course, is the PRC.

3.2.THE TEACHER EDUCATION ANDDEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Another recommendation is (2) The Basic

Education Sector Reform Agenda (BESRA) of

the DepEd which is an effort to improve basic

education outcomes through a broadly

participated, popular movement featuring a

wide variety of initiatives. Activities are

undertaken by individual schools and

communities, as well as networks of schools at

localities involving school districts and

divisions, local governments, civil society

organizations, and other stakeholder groups

and associations.

The overall objectives of BESRA, as these

respond to the countrys Education For All

(EFA) objectives by the year 2015, fully

complement and are harmonized with the

objectives of the Philippine Main Education

Highway. Specifically, in the basic education

level, BESRA is attuned to the EFA 2015

definition that basic education is a process

that enables the child to become self-reliant,

creative, and, in effect become an autonomous

learner. (EDCOM Report, 1992)

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3.3.THE NATIONAL COMPETENCY-BASED

TEACHER STANDARDS

Another is the (3) National Competency-Based

Teacher Standards or NCBTS. One of the

difficulties for education reform in the present

Philippine structures for delivery of

educational services is the trifocalization of

educational administration with DepEd, CHED

and TESDA. In terms of Teacher Education for

Basic Education, a further bifurcation allocates

the responsibility for Pre-Service Education for

Teachers (PRESET) to CHED and In-Service

Education for Teachers (INSET) to DepEd. Such

a structure can be unwieldy, and does not

allow for the easy resolution of those teacher

education issues that do not really separate

themselves into distinct compartment under

the jurisdiction of either PRESET and/or INSET.

(TEDP Report, 2006)

In this light, the NCBTS, as a new approach to

accountability, emphasizes early intervention,

peer review, and recognition of exemplary

teachers who serve as mentors or lead

teachers. In this case, the NCBTS is an

articulation of a singular competency-based

framework for teaching and teacher

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development. The framework will serve as a

guide for all policies, reforms, and activities

related to teaching and teacher development.

The NCBTS provides the common framework

for all teaching and teacher development

programs in the Philippine formal education

sector. The NCBTS is a coherent and

integrated definition of the different

dimensions of good teaching that leads to high

levels of student learning. The contents of the

NCBTS were derived from: (a) educational

theories and empirical research on

characteristics of learning environment and

teaching practices that lead to effective

student learning, and (b) documented

successful practices and programs of schools,

division, regions, and educational reform

projects in different parts of the country.

The implementation of NCBTS is coordinated

under a Memorandum of Agreement among

important major stakeholders: DepEd, CHED,

Teacher Education Council (TEC), Civil Service

Commission, Teacher Education Institutions

(TEIs) and of course, the Professional

Regulation Commission (PRC) through its

Board for Professional Teachers (BPT).

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In the screen, you will see the schematic

representation of the seven integrated

domains of the NCBTS:

These are:

Domain 1: Social regard for learning

Domain 2: The learning environment

Domain 3: The diversity of learners

Domain 4: Curriculum

Domain 5: Planning, Assessing and Reporting

Domain 6: Community linkages

Domain 7: Personal Growth and Professional.

5. UPDATES ON PRC AND THE LICENSURE

EXAMINATION FOR TEACHERS.

As I have earlier mentioned, allow me to give

you an update in teacher education and

licensure examination which we call the

Teacher Education Development Map.

This Teacher Education Development Map is

centered on the National Competency-Based

Teacher Standards (NCBTS). All sectors

concerned with teacher education looked at

these NCBTS for a unified approach to teacher

education. The curriculum in teacher

education institutions is anchored on the

NCBTS. The Board for Professional Teachers of

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the Professional Regulation Commission gives

LET based on the NCBTS. The new Table of

Specifications for the LET is based on the

NCBTS. The recruitment, selection andperformance appraisal system of teachers of

DepEd and Civil Service Commission are also

based on the NCBTS. Even the Training Needs

Analysis of teachers in the field is based on the

NCBTS. Even the selection of the outstanding

teachers in the Metrobank Outstanding

Teachers Project is based on the NCBTS.

The teacher education development plan

shows the partnership of DepEd, CHED, and

PRC. Teacher education institutions regulated

by CHED should offer a curriculum that

responds to the curriculum in the basic

education level. The Board of Professional

Teachers of PRC ought to test the teacher

education graduates on competencies taught

them in the teacher education institutions.

The Table of Specification (TOS) for the

Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) is an

evidence of the partnership among DepEd,

CHED and PRC. It is a product of collaborative

work of curriculum experts in DepEd, subject

specialists in the teacher education

institutions, academicians, and past and

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Biological Science, Physical Science, Social

Studies, MAPEH, Values Education, Technology

and Livelihood Education, and Islamic Studies.

There will be a test in Agriculture for those

specializing in Agriculture. This specialization

was removed in the new curriculum. But there

are still graduates in Agricultural Education, so

the Board passed a resolution on the giving of

test on Agriculture to accommodate those

graduates, even this was removed in the TLE

curriculum.

The new teacher education curriculum is

experiential in approach. Experiential learning

courses are introduced side by side with

foundation courses. Confucius said: knowledge

to practice; practice to knowledge again to

practice. In the foundation courses, after the

theory, the students go to the classroom how

this theory gets applied then back to the

classroom to discuss the theory. Teacher

education institutions offered the experiential

learning courses in many different ways but if

we reflect on the rationale behind these

experiential courses, then the best way to

offer these experiential learning courses will

be to put them side by side theory and

experience. Let us not wait until all theories

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are over for students to get experience of the

theory.

Another thing for consideration is the Memofrom DepEd wherein teachers for deployment

must have had the 6-unit experiential learning

courses. Your BS or non-Education graduates

must then go through the Experiential

Learning courses for deployment in DepEd.

While the Teachers Professionalization Act is

not yet amended, the 18-unit requirement for

professional education subjects is still in place.

CHED already issued a memorandum amending

a former CHED Memo to be consistent with the

law. There is still much confusion in the field

about the 18 unit of 30 unit requirement for

the LET.

6. CLOSING

I hope, with this overload of inputs and

recommendations, we will have something we

could ponder on in the days ahead. So let me

now cut short this very long discourse by

extending my sincere appreciation to all of you

colleagues in the teaching profession with the

sincerest wishes for your success.

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After everything has been said and done,

perhaps we could surmise that the best

strategy for improving teaching education in

the country is us. Us, rediscovering theinspiration that led us to choose to be teachers

in the first place. Us, recognizing the nobility

and immense potential that a teacher has in

helping fellow human beings develop to their

full potential. Artists work on the printed

page, or on canvas, or even on stone to

produce works that endure, but the teacher

works on the infinitely more valuable human

souls, and that lasts forever. The teacher must

avoid the quagmire of mediocrity and

complacency, and the paralysis of the daily

routine; he or she must constantly be on the

alert for the extraordinary and the possible,

constantly striving for new and creative ways

to be the best teacher he or she can be. In this

situation, the central role of the teacher will be

vindicated and restored, and the corollary

issues of status and compensation will redefine

themselves in a new organizational or

community context.

This forum may not be the time or the place to

go into detail and map out a comprehensive

strategy to develop teacher education

according to the mold we perceive as ideal.

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But it may be the right time and place to sound

a clarion call for a new type of teacher

educators of the future, to light the spark in

you the leaders and molders of the nextgeneration of teachers, so that the spark may

be lit and the torch passed on to your

institutions and organizations, until there is

enough light to illuminate the way through

these critical times of transition. And in this

light we dedicate ourselves to the task of

redefining the teacher of the future; in this

light, society can see teachers stand up and be

counted, not just as the guardians of the past,

but rather as the articulators, the heralds,

indeed the shapers of the future.

And by this, we save the Normal Schools in our

country.

SHOW FILM CLIP: IN OUR HANDS.

Mabuhay kayong lahat!

Documents

Speech-CHED Strategies for Teacher Ed