Congress urged to pass law on teacher education

THE president of the Philippine Normal University (PNU) pushed for the enactment of a law that would better address the demands of the K-12 program and raise the quality of instruction in state universities and colleges (SUCs).

“If we can provide free tuition to students (in SUCs), why not pass a law professionalizing teacher education?” said Ester B. Ogena in the recent monthly general assembly of the Foundation for Upgrading the Standard of Education (FUSE).

Ms. Ogena said upgrading teachers’ competencies and school facilities were among the challenges posed by the K-12 curriculum, noting that government only started to provide funding for infrastructure development to SUCs in 2015.

“The quality of teachers is a concern,” Ms. Ogena said. “Assuming not too good students come into the pool, then the current pool of teachers needs additional training to meet the expectations of K-12. For instance, the demands for engineering are tough because of lack of teachers.”

Delving into the assembly’s topic “Teacher Education Program vis-a-vis the K to 12 Curriculum,” Ms. Ogena urged mentors and FUSE officials to help level up with knowledge, content and competencies so they can mold graduates who will be competitive with their ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) counterparts.

“We have quality assurance mechanisms that look into our system of teacher education. CHEd (Commission on Higher Education) has a lot of requirements such as voluntary accreditation, but are we producing competent graduates?” Ms. Ogena said.

She said PNU has begun implementing the OutcomeBased Education (OBE) curriculum which seeks to produce competent graduates by raising the quality of tertiary education in the country.

“The outcome-based system is tough and we need to give time to school administrators to carry out the program,” Ms. Ogena said.