Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian urged the Department of Education (DepEd) Monday to look into reports of teachers allegedly buying ready-made research for promotion or funding.
(MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts, and Culture, said the DepEd should not tolerate such unethical practice.
“The Department of Education (DepEd) should immediately probe incidents of teachers allegedly buying ready-made action research papers for promotion or funding,” Gatchalian said in a statement.
“These unethical practices show lack of integrity and should not be tolerated,” he added.
Gatchalian was reacting to viral posts on social media showing screenshots of conversations allegedly by teachers actively buying ready-made action research papers in a bid to get promoted and secure funding.
According to a Facebook post of a Leezl Campoamor Olegario, some of the teachers who were interested in buying ready-made research papers are from Palawan State University, Northwest Samar State University, and DepEd Banaue Division of Ifugao.
Gatchalian said it is urgent that DepEd institute mechanisms that would thoroughly vet research output submitted by teachers.
“In the medium and long term, however, we should be decongesting the workload of our teachers to afford them time to engage in research,” the senator said.
“Prior to the pandemic, they are already burdened with non-teaching tasks and the shift to distance learning proved overwhelming.”
Given this situation, Gatchalian said Congress should fasttrack Senate Bill No. 1887 or the proposed Teacher Education Council Act that he filed in order to improve the quality of teacher education and training in the country.
“In reforming teacher education and training, we should foster coherence in the entire continuum of teacher education and training – from pre-service to in-service – and ensure that our aspiring teachers are equipped with the skills that DepEd require, including the capacity to produce quality research,” the lawmaker stressed.