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Study highlights insufficient preparation for future Filipino teachers
Study highlights insufficient preparation for future Filipino teachers
The dismal results in licensure examination indicate that teacher education in the country needs a lot of improvement, a group on Thursday, Feb. 2, said.
Industry-led Philippine Business for Education (PBEd), in a press conference, underscored the need to raise the bar in teacher quality in the country given the direct correlation of teaching to learning outcomes, among others.
“We want to improve teacher quality both in pre-service or while they are still studying and in-service when they are already teaching,” PBEd Executive Director Justine Raagas explained.
To shed light on the current status of teacher education in the country, PBEd presented an analysis of the Board Licensure Examination for Professional Teachers (BLEPT) performance of Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) in the Philippines from 2010 to 2022.
“We want to make sure that teachers shift their roles and competencies to not just be sources of knowledge but to become facilitators of knowledge and help people become lifelong learners,” Raagas added.
In the study, Raagas shared that in 12 years, the BLEPT takers doubled in Elementary and tripled in Secondary.
She also noted that secondary BLEPT passing rates are “historically higher than elementary.” However, it was pointed out that the “overall passing rate of LET examiners are lower that other courses or licensure exams.”
Where we are
PBEd Deputy Executive Director Dianne Fajardo-Valencia also presented the findings of the study which highlighted that about 56 percent of TEIs have passing rates below the 12-year average national passing rate for overall takers.
“First time takers have higher passing rates than repeaters,” Valencia said. “Repeaters have higher likelihood of falling again,” she added.
Valencia explained that in BLEPT secondary, 81 percent of TEIs categorized as Centers of Excellence (COEs) and 75 percent which are categorized as Centers of Development (CODs) are “not high-performing or have overall passing rates below 75 percent.”
Moreover, the study also showed that only two percent of TEIs are classified as “high-performing considering passing rates of overall takers.“
PBEd’s study also highlighted that Mindanao, especially, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), has the “lowest passing rates in the country.”
Valencia noted that 45 percent or 98 out of 217 schools in Mindanao are “low-performing.” First-time takers in BARMM, she added, perform “just as bad as repeaters.”
PBEd’s study also highlighted that in most recent years, private sectarian TEIs tend to “outperform others” both in elementary and secondary. Private non-sectarians, PBEd said, have the “highest share in low-performing TEIs.”
What can we do
Given the findings of the study, PBEd Policy and Advocacy Manager Andoni Santos noted that there is not enough preparation for the country’s future teachers.
“We’re not properly preparing our future teachers,” Santos said, noting that teacher education in the country is “really something that needs improvement.”
To address the challenges in teacher education in the country, PBEd laid out its policy recommendations that will help the concerned sectors bridge the gaps.
Santos underscored the need to focus on building more and maintaining COEs per region, supporting CODs to become COEs, and tight monitoring their performance.
He also stressed the need to review the responsiveness of teachers' education curriculum and BLEPT questions to Philippine Professional Standards (PPSTs) of the Department of Education (DepEd).
Checking the feasibility of establishing a tiered licensing system for TEI graduates and licensing TEIs, Santos said, is also a must.
If needed, Santos noted the need to close down education programs of low-performing TEIs “specifically those who consistently poorly perform year after year.”
PBEd is also pushing for the implementation of a “3-strike rule” for repeaters.
Additionally, Santos highlighted the urgent need to develop and publish granular and regular data that will help measure the performance of TEIs.
Santos also expressed hope that PBEd’s study “can act as a catalyst” to improve teacher education in the Philippines.
“Our teachers are heroes but we just can’t expect them to be resilient and to push on despite the lack of support,” he said.
“We have to give them the proper support, ensure that they will possess the skills that they will need and that they will have the materials that they need,” he added.
Santos also noted that PBEd’s study “just shows one small portion” in improving teacher quality. “There’s really a lot of teacher quality interventions needed and this is just one...but we hope that it is the start,” he said.