The Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) and World Bank held an online symposium on June 5 to discuss educational issues in the Philippines, emphasizing the need for quality in pre-service teacher programs.
The online symposium on teacher education was organized by the senatorial sub-committee on Teacher Education, in collaboration with Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Philippine Business for Education, and the World Bank Philippine Country office.
They tackled issues that are the root cause of problems in the Philippine educational sector, which included a low national passing rate for teacher licensure examinations, underperforming Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs), and lack of sustainability in the teacher profession.
Senator Koko Pimentel, Chairperson for the sub-committee on Teacher Education, pointed out that the lack of institutional support for pre-service teachers was due to a lack of investment on the educational sector.
“Quality learning is contingent upon quality teaching. If we can spend billions on missiles and submarines, why don’t we spend on this program for teacher education?” Pimentel said.
Dr. Ancieto Orbeta, Jr., President of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said that the data showed that TEIs were underperforming- the average performance of teacher licensure examinations had a passing rate at 33% for elementary and 40% for secondary.
Karol Mark Yee, EDCOM 2 Executive Director added that between 2012 to 2022, 77 higher education institutions that offered the Bachelor of Elementary Education course and 105 offering the same degree in Secondary Education, continued to operate despite having zero passing rates.
Lack of pre-service teacher support
The data gathered by EDCOM 2 showed a disconnect between what the pre-service training for teachers entailed and what was needed in-service.
Yee cited some of the sample hiring posts, specializations for schools that are not included in job postings for teacher items, and teachers who were assigned subjects that did not fall under their pre-service specialization as evidence of this disconnection.
“On top of these challenges, our schools do not have a formal mechanism to report their specific teaching staff needs, with current practices in determining teacher plantilla positions not considering specific teacher specialization requirements of schools,” Yee said.
The education specialists from the World Bank showed that there was a wide range of support needed in order to make the teaching profession more sustainable, which included initiatives in attracting future teachers, offering multiple pathways for high-quality initial teacher education, and refining systems used for hiring, deployment, and induction into the profession, as well as flexible career pathways for continuous professional development.
However, World Bank pointed out that the Philippines’ Commission on Higher Education (CHED)’s practicum for teacher education was too short, as it required only a minimum of six units for Field Studies and six units for Practice Teaching or Teaching Internship.
They noted that in top-performing countries like Finland and China had at least a six-month practicum for their pre-service teachers.
The EDCOM 2 panel agreed that different courses needed to be recognized for pre-service teacher training. The panel also explored the possibility of implementing a mentor-teacher program, to assess the performance of new teachers and identify those who can potentially be mentors.
Pimentel said that these intervention strategies would need a budget in order for it to be implemented properly, and the EDCOM 2 panel recommended further studies on the proposed strategies.
