The Senate has approved on third and final reading the bill that seeks to improve the quality of teacher education and training in the country.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said passage into law of Senate Bill No. 2152 or the Teacher Education Excellence Act would be a “major step out of an education crisis.”

The bill primarily amends Republic Act No. 7784 to strengthen the Teacher Education Council (TEC) created in 1993. It seeks to make the TEC a responsive coordinating body for the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), and the Department of Education (DepEd), the main government entities involved in teacher education.

This will realign pre-service and in-service education to improve the quality of teachers, and in turn improve the quality of education provided in elementary and secondary classrooms, Gatchalian said.

“Hindi natin maiaangat ang kalidad ng edukasyon ng ating mga kabataan kung wala ring dekalidad na pagsasanay at edukasyon ang ating mga guro (We cannot improve the quality of education of our students if our teachers cannot provide quality training and education),” said Gatchalian, chair of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture.

“Ang mga guro ay ang mga frontliners natin sa pagsugpo sa krisis ng edukasyon kaya dapat tiyakin na mula sa kolehiyo hanggang sa pagtuturo, sila ay handa at may sapat na kakayahan (Our teachers are our frontliners who would solve our education crisis, that’s why it’s necessary that starting from college, until they teach, they are fully equipped and ready for the part),” said Gatchalian.

The senator earlier flagged that graduates in Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) have been performing poorly in the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET).

According to the lawmaker, only 35 percent of secondary education LET takers passed, while only 28 percent of takers at the elementary level passed from 2010 to 2019.

He also said that in 2019, only 46 TEIs are in the Better Performing and Top Performing Categories on the Elementary LET. At least 75 percent of those who graduated from these TEIs passed the exam.

Meanwhile, there are 815 schools in the Worse or Poor Performing Categories, or those with passing rates of at least 50 percent. At the Secondary Level, there were only 27 Better or Top Performing TEIs and almost 1,000 Worse or Poor Performing schools.

Gatchalian said the revamped TEC will establish a roadmap for teacher education and also mandate, monitor, and quality assure compliance with minimum requirements for teacher education programs.

“This is to ensure a strong and transparent link between the outcomes of teacher programs, the professional standards for teachers, research, and international best practice,” he said.