Strengthening teacher education

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) through the initiatives of Commissioner Nenalyn Defensor held a “Consultative Conference on Strategies for the Conservation of Normal Schools as Focused Institutions and Strengthening of Teacher Education Institutions” on December 15, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the HEDC Function Room.

Invited to this conference were the presidents and deans of colleges and universities that started as normal schools whose teacher education programs are identified by CHED as centers of excellence. Also there were the executive director of the Teacher Education Council (TEC), the president of the Philippine Association for Teacher Education (PAFTE) and the chairperson of the Technical Panel for Teacher Education.

Commissioner Defensor emphasized her personal advocacy “Save our Future—Save our Normal Schools.” She identified the nine original normal schools that started as normal schools and are now either integrated with other schools and/or converted into universities. She enjoined the administrators and deans present to do something to save the normal schools. Teacher education program is now in state of degradation attributed to poor quality of teachers and therefore the urgent need to strengthen it.

Chairman Emmanuel Angeles who delivered the inspirational message reiterated the importance of teacher education in shaping the country and the need to do something to improve the quality of teacher education graduates. He assured all those present of his full support to strengthen the teacher education program in terms of allocating funds for faculty development, faculty improvement, scholarships, and optimum use of information and communication technology. He exhorted everyone to do much, much more for the younger generation if only to prove our love of country. He enjoined everyone present to work together and support the effort of Commissioner Defensor.

Commissioner Nilo Rosas of the Professional Regulation Commission started his talk on “Strategies for Improving Teacher Education” by narrating the history of normal schools in the Philippines. He mentioned several names of great alumni of normal schools and congratulated the administrators and deans present. He then cited the results of the different studies. The Monroe Survey revealed 95 percent of teachers lacked professional training and teachers received ineffective instruction and supervision.

He emphasized his in-school and off-school practice teaching experience and processes that he underwent which made him internalize the value of teaching and learned to love the profession so much until he became the President of Philippine Normal University which is the National Center for
Teacher Education. To improve the Teacher Education sector is to look at our present crop of students, teachers, administrators, facilities and even the content of the licensure examination for teachers.

Commissioner Rosas also said that to reclaim the glory days of teacher education, there must be accurate baseline data and information on the current situation. He presented a table to show the performance of teacher education graduates from 2004 to present and the trend showed a declining performance in the National Passing Percentage for both elementary and secondary education which is 26 percent and 27 percent respectively. The real state of teacher education must be thoroughly studied, the gaps and problems identified; the curriculum must be revisited and the whole pre-service education assessed to determine if it is responsive to Basic Education Thrusts.

He cited some actualities of teacher education and ended his talk by challenging all present through a poem.

This was followed by the participants being organized into Workshop Group A, Workshop Group B and Workshop Group C. The three groups did simultaneous sessions to brainstorm strategies on the following topics:

1. Assessment and Evaluation of Outcomes of Centers for Teacher Education (CTEs)
2. Further Activities of CTEs for Regional Impact
3. Networking and Collaboration among CTEs

There was a plenary session where each group’s outputs were presented. Cited were some strategies adopted by the presidents and deans of HEIs in their regions. Others were more concerned about the internalization of teacher education programs through networking. Also discussed were collaboration with other centers of excellence and teacher education institutions in research undertakings; faculty development and training across programs; accreditation and use of state-of-the art infrastructure and acquisition of educational media that would support instruction.

Following the Input-Process-Output Approach, it is sad to find that majority of college freshmen taking education are not the top notch high school graduates. Seldom can you find a class valedictorian or salutatorian taking teacher education to make teaching his/her career. In fact education seems to be the third or even the fourth choice of students and even parents. With this kind of input can we really expect much from them?

The other big issue is the exodus of good and competent Filipino teachers to foreign countries offering them good pay and greener pastures. Those left in our schools have much to be desired in terms of competence, mastery of subject content and attitude. Teachers who have no mastery of the learning outcomes in the subject they teach and therefore cannot tell whether or not their students have come to possess the right knowledge, skills and competencies per standards required for the subject.

The teacher education program is beset with multifarious problems that must concern the government, industry, academe, NGOs, politicians and all of us. Education is still the most valuable inheritance we can give to our children, our loved ones, our colleagues and our country.
Education is still the solution. But do we do anything about it?

I believe that the true success of an educator can be measured by the number of lives one has touched and influenced who in turn become responsible citizens of our country. For this to happen we must all be responsible. We must all be working to contribute, share and even sacrifice for the good of our youth. One writer says “Attitude is a very important determinant of success because attitude can be our greatest asset and yet may also be our greatest liability; our greatest friend and yet may also be our worst enemy.” –FELIZARDO Y. FRANCISCO, Manila Times

opinion@manilatimes.net