EMBRACING CHANGE, WORKING IN PROGRESS

ALEN M. TIGLAO

Change is the heartbeat of growth, it is an inevitable scenario in every man’s life. In teaching profession, you should cope with tremendous demands of the 21st century education and be competent to handle situations dealing with academic quandaries and curriculumrelated reforms. The advancement of technology and the K12 curriculum were considerably a massive proof of development in the educational system of the Philippines, these new ideals traverse from the traditional lecture, chalk-talk and mere spoon feeding teaching.

DepEd-Division of Pampanga recently introduced the new way of gauging the performance of teachers and schools they are affiliated. Years dated, the department mandated all public schools to use the Individual Performance Commitment and Review Form (IPCRF) for Teachers and Office Performance Commitment and Review Form (OPCRF) for the Administrator. The said forms were utilized to attain desired objectives in different Key Result Areas (KRAs) aligned with the target goals of the school, this symbiosis was an organizational alignment in order to ensure that all components will be subject for attainment.

Furthermore, a division-wide seminar was held in public secondary and elementary schools in the division of Pampanga dealing with roll-out on the Results-Based Performance Management System (RPMS) in accordance to the newly implemented Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST). This will be used to systematically assessed teachers performance with appropriate tools encapsulated. It includes the (1) RPMS tools where there are already pre-set objectives (uniformity) for teachers to select under the different KRAs, (2) Self-Assessment Tools in order to profile the teachers and identify the development needs for further implementation of trainings by the school head, (3) Classroom Observation Tools that enable both the teachers and observers on the correct procedure of classroom observations inclusive of mentoring, coaching and recommending solutions and (4) Portfolio Management that will allows teacher to properly arrange the documents and evidences according to objectives, this also involves the process of correct annotation in justifying the evidences enveloped in the portfolio.

The mentioned details were some of the highlights in the RPMS Roll-out of DepEd Pampanga that continuously enliven the mission and vision of the department. It only aims quality teachers and quality performance leading to lifelong education for Filipino learners. Spearheaded by the champion leaders of Division of Pampanga, Dr. Leonardo D. Zapanta, SDS and Ma’am Rowena T. Quiambao, ASDS, alongside with the DepEd officials who passionately devoted their expertise and unselfish guidance to all teacher-heroes in becoming an instrument of educational change and reform towards progressive country. One DepEd, One Pampanga.

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The author is SST I at Masantol High School