Lack of competent teachers may doom K-12 program – senator

(With a report from Maria Teresa Yosores)


THE Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) program may fail if the Department of Education will not have enough “quality” teachers who can help implement it, Sen. Edgardo Angara warned on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, an official of a personality-development school has expressed support for the program, saying that it would enable Filipinos to compete in the international arena.

According to Angara, the chairman of the Senate committee on education, arts and culture, more world-class educators are needed to implement the program and improve the country’s educational system.

There are about 510,629 teachers in the country, but about 99,628 more are needed, data from the Education department revealed.

Figures released by the National Statistical Coordinating Board (NSCB) showed that the number of Education Science and Teacher Training graduates declined over the past decade, from 71,349 in schoolyear 2000–2001 to 56,209 in schoolyear 2009–2010.

“We cannot afford to forget our teachers amidst all the changes that are about to take place,” Angara said.

“They will be at the forefront of our efforts to reform education, so we must do everything we can to prepare and support them,” he added.

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and the Board for Professional Teachers (BPT) recently announced that only 13,925 elementary teachers out of 32,798 examinees (42.46 percent) and only 7,149 secondary teachers out of 28,764 examinees (24.85 percent) passed the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) for 2012.

“These percentages do not sit well with the national drive for global competitiveness and are a clear sign that a lot more needs to be done to educate our educators,” the senator said.

“Within the next decade, we must invest more time and effort to training our teachers,” he added.

The lawmaker noted that about P100 million in the 2012 budget of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has been earmarked for scholarships in teacher development.

“This is a good step, but for sure, more will have to be done to catalyze the reform process towards raising the bar of our teaching standards,” Angara said.

“More of our resources—such as ICT and social media—can be directed toward creating a national network where teachers can help train other teachers, share their experiences in implementing K-12, and receive input from education experts in other countries,” he added.

Also on Tuesday, Monet Ibanez, the school director of the John Robert Powers personality and image-development school in Muntinlupa City’s Alabang suburb, voiced her support for K-12 and similar programs like it, believing that it would make children more competitive later on.

“We at John Robert Powers believe that to succeed in the global economy, one must be equipped with the necessary tools to compete and build solid business ties,” Ibanez explained.

“Those who are poised to take advantage of these emerging and progressively transforming global opportunities will fully realize success,” she said.

Her only child, Jenina, took her basic education in an exclusive school in Muntinlupa that already implemented a kindergarten and Grade 7 curriculum.

Ibanez observed that children who went through these additional educational levels are more mature and surer about what college course to take.

“The child is not only more knowledgeable, but more emotionally matured to go through the rigors of college life,” Ibanez said.

According to her, K-12 would be advantageous to Filipinos, “so that kids are both locally and globally competitive. It’s an investment that parents should provide for their children so they can have the chance to be successful in their careers.”