Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 23) – A senator is feeling hopeless after hearing from the Teacher Education Council (TEC) on what it is doing to improve teacher education in the country.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian stressed that the TEC’s mandate is to gather stakeholders and come up with specific policies to ensure the efficiency of teachers.
“I’m getting some hodge podge answers from you and I don’t see a concrete strategy, roadmap, game plan on how to improve learner outcomes,” Gatchalian told the council’s officials during Thursday’s hearing of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture, which he chairs.
The committee is taking up Senate Bill No. 1887, which aims to amend an older measure on strengthening teacher education.
Gatchalian, who filed the bill, said the country’s scores in last year’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) should have been a wakeup call for the council.
Results of the PISA showed Filipino students fared worst among 79 counties in reading comprehension and second lowest in math and science literacy.
“Teacher education, not as an end by itself, but it will lead to learner outcome,” Gatchalian noted.
The TEC is made up of various agencies including the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA)..
CHED chairman Prospero De Vera said one of the problems is the lack of data needed in policy making. One example he cited is data on teachers’ supply and demand.
Since there is no serious study on this, De Vera said the CHED does not really know what motivates students to take up teaching courses.
“We’re working on certain assumptions or general studies that are not really focused on teacher education, and sometimes anecdotal evidence based on individual universities which may not be representative of the totality of the education institutions,” De Vera explained.
Gatchalian, however, said some issues can be addressed with ‘common sense solutions’ as data gathering and analysis could take years.
Magna Carta for teachers
The committee also tackled a resolution seeking to review the implementation of the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers.
During the hearing, civil society groups Teachers Dignity Coalition and E-Net Philippines said various provisions of the law is either not implemented or under implemented.
These include provisions on overtime pay, free medical checkup, and transportation expenses.
Gatchalian added that some provisions seem to be contradicted by policies carried out by other government agencies.
“The GSIS has a different computation on retirement,” the senator said. “We will invite them next hearing to shed light on this policy that runs contradictory to the magna carta.”
CNN Philippines’ correspondent AC Nicholls contributed to this report
