DepEd, CHED bare wish list for PBBM's 2nd SONA
By Raymund Antonio and Raymund Antonio
Published Jul 11, 2023 07:13 am
With President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s second State of the Nation Address (SONA) coming up on July 24, the Department of Education (DepEd) and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) have some things they want to hear from the Chief Executive when it comes to his plans for the education sector.
(From left) Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Prospero De Vera III and Education Undersecretary Michael Poa (Photo from the Presidential Communications Office)
First is the President’s support for the Teachers Education Council (TEC), which would tackle the teaching quality in the country, DepEd Undersecretary Michael Poa said during a Palace press briefing on Tuesday, July 11.
“If you remember, during the basic education report of the Vice President, she raised the concern on teaching quality but she reminded all of us na hindi po kasalanan ng mga teachers iyan ‘no (the teachers are not at fault) – it’s really our system,” he explained.
“And so, we would like that to be—siguro (maybe) if you’re asking for something, a program that can happen between CHEd and DepEd na gusto nating maisulong, iyan po ‘yung TEC (that we want to progress, that’s the TEC),” Poa added.
TEC aims to formulate policies to improve teacher education in all existing public and private schools, review teaching training methods, and adopt an effective system of benefits and incentives.
It would also design projects to enhance teacher development, review existing policies and legislations, recommend measures to the President and Congress, and ask for assistance from concerned agencies regarding the improvement of teachers’ education.
Apart from this, Poa also discussed DepEd’s plan to “institutionalize blended learning . . . in the Philippines as a permanent mode of delivery.”
The official explained that blended learning would complement the “traditional solutions” of hiring more teachers and building more classrooms since those cannot be done overnight.
“And that’s why we also presented that we are now going on a two-track approach wherein alongside the traditional solutions of building more classrooms and hiring more teachers, we also want to tap into technology ‘no – lessons we learned during the pandemic,” he said.
The pandemic, the official added, opened the opportunity for the use of online classes.
“So we want to use that to be able to decongest our schools – this will effectively and efficiently resolve iyong issues ‘no as to teachers’ shortage and classroom shortage in a quicker span of time,” Poa stressed.
But before the implementation of this new scheme, the DepEd official assured that its effectivity on students’ learning will be properly studied.
The agency would also look at the “best practices” to ensure that the quality of education won’t suffer in lieu of a new method of learning.
Meanwhile, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Prospero De Vera III boasted that under the Marcos administration, there are now a total of 18 medical programs in the country.
This originated from eight before the addition of four programs under the Duterte administration and another six during Marcos’ one year in office.
“So these new medical schools offers scholarships, they have state-of-the-art equipment to produce world-class doctors who will serve in underserved areas,” he said.
De Vera shared that CHED is also aiming to increase access to higher education by making it inclusive, noting the imbalance in the admission and acceptance rates of universities—University of the Philippines and Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP)—offering free higher education.
He pointed out that only “those who are better prepared to take the admission, those whose parents had money for a review class, those who are better prepared are the ones who are able to avail of free higher education.”
“It is time that we focus on equity – meaning a conscious effort to identify the groups that we need to bring to university education that can be marginalized because of the admission process and the competitiveness,” he said.
The CHED official said that in pushing for inclusive education in the next five years, he hopes that public universities would be “very conscious in identifying students from public schools, students from poverty areas, the children of indigenous people, those have been marginalized to assist them pass the admission test.”
“So, we want that to be the moving forward for the Marcos administration – an administration that will make sure inclusive education is realized,” De Vera added.
(From left) Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Prospero De Vera III and Education Undersecretary Michael Poa (Photo from the Presidential Communications Office)
First is the President’s support for the Teachers Education Council (TEC), which would tackle the teaching quality in the country, DepEd Undersecretary Michael Poa said during a Palace press briefing on Tuesday, July 11.
“If you remember, during the basic education report of the Vice President, she raised the concern on teaching quality but she reminded all of us na hindi po kasalanan ng mga teachers iyan ‘no (the teachers are not at fault) – it’s really our system,” he explained.
“And so, we would like that to be—siguro (maybe) if you’re asking for something, a program that can happen between CHEd and DepEd na gusto nating maisulong, iyan po ‘yung TEC (that we want to progress, that’s the TEC),” Poa added.
TEC aims to formulate policies to improve teacher education in all existing public and private schools, review teaching training methods, and adopt an effective system of benefits and incentives.
It would also design projects to enhance teacher development, review existing policies and legislations, recommend measures to the President and Congress, and ask for assistance from concerned agencies regarding the improvement of teachers’ education.
Apart from this, Poa also discussed DepEd’s plan to “institutionalize blended learning . . . in the Philippines as a permanent mode of delivery.”
The official explained that blended learning would complement the “traditional solutions” of hiring more teachers and building more classrooms since those cannot be done overnight.
“And that’s why we also presented that we are now going on a two-track approach wherein alongside the traditional solutions of building more classrooms and hiring more teachers, we also want to tap into technology ‘no – lessons we learned during the pandemic,” he said.
The pandemic, the official added, opened the opportunity for the use of online classes.
“So we want to use that to be able to decongest our schools – this will effectively and efficiently resolve iyong issues ‘no as to teachers’ shortage and classroom shortage in a quicker span of time,” Poa stressed.
But before the implementation of this new scheme, the DepEd official assured that its effectivity on students’ learning will be properly studied.
The agency would also look at the “best practices” to ensure that the quality of education won’t suffer in lieu of a new method of learning.
Meanwhile, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Prospero De Vera III boasted that under the Marcos administration, there are now a total of 18 medical programs in the country.
This originated from eight before the addition of four programs under the Duterte administration and another six during Marcos’ one year in office.
“So these new medical schools offers scholarships, they have state-of-the-art equipment to produce world-class doctors who will serve in underserved areas,” he said.
De Vera shared that CHED is also aiming to increase access to higher education by making it inclusive, noting the imbalance in the admission and acceptance rates of universities—University of the Philippines and Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP)—offering free higher education.
He pointed out that only “those who are better prepared to take the admission, those whose parents had money for a review class, those who are better prepared are the ones who are able to avail of free higher education.”
“It is time that we focus on equity – meaning a conscious effort to identify the groups that we need to bring to university education that can be marginalized because of the admission process and the competitiveness,” he said.
The CHED official said that in pushing for inclusive education in the next five years, he hopes that public universities would be “very conscious in identifying students from public schools, students from poverty areas, the children of indigenous people, those have been marginalized to assist them pass the admission test.”
“So, we want that to be the moving forward for the Marcos administration – an administration that will make sure inclusive education is realized,” De Vera added.