DepEd defends teachers amid poor showing in int’l education assessments

MANILA, Philippines — Many teachers entering the workforce are “prepared” to deliver what is expected of them, Education Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio insisted Thursday despite the Philippines performing poorly in previous international education assessments.

In a Senate hearing, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian asked San Antonio if the Department of Education (DepEd) is satisfied with the “teachers’ education” that is being given in the pre-service level.

“Generally, I would feel that — because they are duly licensed — many of our fellow teachers are prepared to deliver what is expected of them. But there are multiple factors that influence the extent of commitment and competence that our fellow teachers would have,” San Antonio said.

“The literature is very clear that this is not a very simple concern. There are many factors that influence these things,” he added.

San Antonio also expressed beliefs that colleges and universities “offered their best to really train the future teachers,” adding that the DepEd also has “set requirements and guidelines in assessing the quality and performance of our future teachers.”

Nonetheless, San Antonio said teachers’ education and training is only one aspect of the education system in the country.

“What I’m saying is, we cannot just absolutely say that it’s satisfactory or it’s not but I would wish to believe that the teachers we hire are eager to be instruments of the provision of good quality basic education,” San Antonio said.

“But again when we talk about the quality of basic education, it’s not as simple as just fixing one aspect of the system. It entails a systematic approach and of course, the effort to strengthen the teacher education and professional development is a very important first step,” he added.

The Senate committee on basic education, arts and culture, as well as the committee on higher, technical and vocational education were discussing measures to strengthen the Teacher Education Council in a move to improve the quality of teachers and school leaders in the country.

In the same hearing, DepEd expressed its support of the measure.

“We are unifying efforts, we are organizing the efforts to really be responsive to the challenges of the times and we are anchoring the efforts on the professional standards for Philippine school teachers as previously identified by the DepEd after a through research on what should be paid attention to in terms of the competencies we expect from our teachers,” San Antonio said.

EDV