To help more than 1,000 Filipinos working as teachers in Cambodia, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Philippine Embassy in Phnom Penh have launched a development program to enhance their competencies and ensure high salaries.
CHED Chairman J. Prospero de Vera III and Chargé d’Affaires Myca Magnolia signed last Friday a Memorandum of Cooperation to introduce the "Developing Global Filipino Teachers" program which aims to equip, capacitate, and enhance competencies of the 1,152 Filipino teachers in Cambodia.
According to De Vera, the embassy alerted the commission last year on the plight of these Filipinos working as teachers in Cambodia as the majority of them are not licensed to teach due to lack of proper credentials.
The CHED partnered with some universities, including St. Paul University, Cebu Normal University, and the Philippine Normal University, which are centers of excellence in teacher education, for the realization of professionalization of some of the OFWs who are not licensed professional teachers.
"We cannot emphasize the importance of higher education in playing a critical role in the development of our citizens here and abroad. This memorandum of cooperation produces better collaboration and easier grasp of the problem at hand," De Vera said.
"The solution is now within our reach, thanks to the Developing Global Filipino Teachers program," he added.
Under the memorandum, those who are qualified for the program include professionals who are not graduates of the teacher education program who intend to take the Philippine Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET); in-service teachers who want to enhance their competencies and their impact in the classroom and beyond to understand global issues; graduates of education program but have not passed the Philippine LET; and those Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).
"This program is one of the manifestations of the Filipino 'bayanihan' spirit driving the Philippine higher education during this COVID-19 crisis. We grappled with the pandemic individually but we will conquer it together as one," the CHED chief added.