As part of this year’s World Teachers’ Day celebration, PBEd renewed its call for BLEPT reform to help ensure that only well-prepared and qualified educators enter the country’s classrooms.
“Fixing teacher licensure is not just a technical issue—it’s a matter of national survival,” said PBEd Executive Director Bal Camua. “We can’t solve the learning crisis without first ensuring that every classroom is led by a competent, compassionate, and well-prepared teacher,” he added.
PBEd emphasized that strengthening the foundations of teacher preparation and licensure is essential to addressing the Philippines’ ongoing learning crisis.
“Teachers are at the heart of learning recovery. But to empower them, we must start by ensuring that those who enter the profession are well-trained, well-supported, and rigorously screened,” Camua said. “The BLEPT must be a fair, valid, and reliable measure of teacher readiness,” he added.
The group also stressed that without ensuring that only competent and well-prepared educators enter classrooms, efforts to improve learning outcomes and strengthen the nation’s education system will continue to falter.
Gaps in the current BLEPT design
Citing the study “Fixing the Foundations: Strengthening the Teaching Workforce through the BLEPT” presented by the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II), PBEd identified several key issues in how the teacher licensure exam is currently designed and administered:
- Misalignment between the BLEPT, the teacher education curriculum, and the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST);
- Limited number of qualified item writers and reviewers, with only three board members preparing test questions for eight-degree programs and multiple specializations; and
- Lack of pilot testing and systematic item analysis, raising concerns about the exam’s validity and fairness.
According to PBEd, these gaps weaken the credibility of the country’s teacher licensure exam and may fail to accurately measure teacher readiness.