Philippine Teachers Professionalization

 

The Philippine Teachers Professionalization Act of 1994: Its Implications to Teacher Education

    Pursuant to the provision of Section 1 Article XIV of the 1987 of the 1987 Constitution that “the State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all”. The Philippine Teachers Professionalization Act of 1994 (Republic Act No. 7836) was promulgated.

    This was signed into law by President Fidel V. Ramos on December 16, 1994. The above mentioned law amends and/or supersedes the provisions of P.D. (No. 1006 or the Teachers Professionalization Decree of 1976, which was the basis of the Professional Board Examination for Teachers (PBET). This act aimed towards (1) the promotion, development and professionalization of teachers and the teaching profession and (2) the supervision and regulation of the licensure examination for teachers.

    To this effect, the Professional Board Examination for Teachers which was traditionally administered by the National Board for Teachers, an agency attached to the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports in coordination with the Civil Service Commission, will be administered by the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) starting August 1996.

The Professional Board for Teachers

    The teacher’s examination including its rules and regulations will be enforced through a collegial body called the Board for Professional Teachers, under the supervision of the PRC. They are appointed by the President of the Philippines based on the recommendations of the accredited associations of teachers. Pursuant to the provisions of the law, the board shall be composed of five (5) members who shall be (a) citizens of the Philippines, (b) at least 35 years old, of proven integrity, and possess high moral values in their professional and personal conduct and have not been convicted of any offense involving moral turpitude, (c) holder of a Bachelor’s degree in Education or Bachelor of Arts and preferably holders of a master’s degree of doctorate degree in education or its equivalent, (d) professional teachers with valid certificate of registration and valid professional license, except those who shall compose the first Board for Professional Teachers, (e) have been professional teachers in the active practice of the teaching profession for at least ten (10) years in the elementary and secondary level, and (f) not officials or members of the faculty of, nor have a pecuniary interest in any university, college, school or institution conferring a bachelor’s degree in education or its equivalents for at least three (3) years prior to their appointment, and neither connected with a review center or with any group or association where review classes or lectures in preparation for the licensure examination are offered or conducted.

Examination and Registration

    All applicants for registration as professional teachers shall be required to pass a written examination which shall be given at least once a year in places and dates as the board may determine upon the approval by the PRC. A valid certificate of registration and a valid professional license from the PRC are required before any person is allowed to practice as a professional teacher in the Philippines.

    The examination for the elementary and secondary school teachers shall be given separately. The results of the examination shall be released within one hundred twenty (120) days after the date of examination. In this connection, a professional license signed by the Chairman of the PRC and bearing the registration number and date of issuance and the expiration and renewability shall be issued to every registrant who has paid the annual registration fees for three consecutive years. This license shall serve as evidence that the license can lawfully practice his profession.

Periodic Merit Examination

Aside from the licensure examination, a professional teacher is encouraged to grow professionally by taking a Merit Examination once in every five years as provided by section 19 of this law, the result of which shall serve as the basis for merit promotion as well as for salary adjustments. However, no fee shall be required in taking the merit examination.

A teacher who fails to pass the merit examination will be allowed to take the examination for the second time. If he fails, he shall be required to take a CHED accredited refresher course or program before being allowed to take another examination. However, failure in the merit examination shall not be used as ground for dismissal or demotion.

But those who passed shall be awarded a diploma of merit by the board, earn merit points for purposes of salary adjustment or promotion to higher position or grade level, be placed in priority list for government scholarship, and enjoy other benefits as may be provided by the board. Moreover, the law provides that these incentives shall be extended to those teachers who make inventions, develop new methods of teaching, write a book or books and create works of artistic merit.

Registration and Exception

    The Board for Professional Teachers shall publish a roster of professional teachers, date of registration, their names and addresses and other pertinent data. Furthermore, as provided by Section 26, two years after the affectivity of this law, no person shall engage in teaching and/or act as professional teacher whether in the pre-school, elementary or secondary level, unless he is a duly-registered professional teacher and a holder of a valid certificate of registration. Applications for license as a professional teacher may be issued without examination under the following circumstances:

a)    a holder of a certificate of eligibility as a teacher issued by the Civil Service Commission and the CHED;

b)    registered professional teacher with the National Board for Teachers under the CHED pursuant to P.D. 1006;

c)    an elementary or secondary teacher of five (5) years in good standing and a holder of a Bachelor’s degree in Education or its equivalent;

d)    An elementary or secondary teacher for three years in good standing and a holder of a master’s degree in education or its equivalent.

    The teachers who fall under the above circumstances are given two years from the organization of the Board for Professional Teachers within which to register and be included in the roster of professional teachers. Those incumbent teachers who are not qualified to register without passing any examination or qualified yet failed to register within the two year period shall be issued a temporary special permit. Furthermore, those who failed in the licensure examination for professional teachers shall be eligible as para-teachers.

    On the other hand, this law also provides for a fine of not less than five thousand pesos (Php5, 000) nor more than twenty-thousand pesos (Php20, 000) or imprisonment of not less than six months nor more than five years, or both, (at the discretion of the court) to any person, school or school official found guilty of violating the provisions of this law.

THE “LET” AND QUALITY EDUCATION

    The law which professionalizes the teaching profession and placing the authority of administering the licensure examination for teachers to the Professional Regulations Commission is a laudable endeavor. Yet it is just one of those herculean tasks that the

    State through the CHED needs to accomplish soonest in order to rectify the turbulent maladies that are now pestering the entire educational system.

    The teacher is the most important factor in the educative (teaching-learning) process. The teacher with his personality has the capacity either to make or break the young minds that are entrusted to his care. Therefore, the teacher holds in his hands the future of this nation. No wonder why the oft-quoted EDCOM report in 1991 considered the teachers as the heart of the problem.

That same report stated that the teachers are poorly trained and most of them in any level of education do not have the minimum qualifications for teaching. It is indicated that the deplorable performance can be traced to poor teaching training and the low quality of students enrolled in teacher training institutions.

This allegation no matter how hard it is for us in the field of education to accept its veracity has an inherent truth in it. This is due to the fact that teaching is a poorly esteemed profession nowadays. Gone are those years when teachers were the helm of the public’s eyes and were considered to be the most honorable people in any society.

For this, teaching can no longer attract the best high school graduates. The prevalent psyche today is that if you are bright and talented as much as possible you should avoid being a teacher and instead take up law, medicine, engineering and other high paying professions. Whereas, if you are mediocre student, teaching is the easiest course for you to get a college diploma.

What has really happened to the noblest profession? What did the government do to save this noble calling from the mire of misery and from its deteriorating condition?

    These questions are just the proverbial “tip of the iceberg” in so far as the horrible state of teaching in the Philippines is concerned.

    As expected, nobody is willing and courageous enough to accept the blame. Instead, the different sectors involved are pointing an accusing finger at each The government for its part will point to the provision of Section 5 Article XIV of the 1987 Constitution as its contribution to alleviate the plight of the poor teachers, for this mandates that the State should give the highest budgetary priority to education, so as to attract the best available talents into becoming teachers.

    However, it is easier said than done. As it is mentioned in this book (Foundations of Education II), teaching has already lost its traditional glory and glamour. It is now considered a horrible if not a disgusting profession. Teachers are now demoralized and somehow “demonetized” professionals. To this effect nobody dares to take the challenge of educating our youth and worst even those are already in the field are leaving their calling as teachers to serve as domestic helpers, baby sitters, and even entertainers in foreign countries.

    The enrolment of teacher training schools in Metro Manila and even in the whole country is declining. Well, no one can blame and force the student to be teachers if they cannot be promised with a bed of roses once they decided to enter the portals of the teaching profession. If they have other alternatives to make more money, surely they would not dare embark on the gargantuan and seemingly unrewarding task of being a teacher.

    But of course there are other idealists who would content that teaching is not a money- making machine, but rather a calling, a vocation that needed an unwavering devotion and commitment. And in the words of Socrates of ancient Greece, if the teachers teach because of salary, they are degrading the reputation of the profession and reducing it to a mere income-generating endeavor.

    Again, these words are easier said than done. I firmly believe that teachers are just human beings like any other professional. They need what everybody needs. Teachers cannot teach with an empty stomach. They cannot teach if they have nothing to wear. They cannot teach effectively if their families are starving and are dying because they have no money to buy the necessary medicine.

    Moreover, almost all the studies conducted in the past until now, since the Monroe Survey of the 1920’s and the Swanson Survey of the 1950’s up to the current report of the EDCOM revealed the same thing – teachers are poorly paid and trained. So what else is new? If the proper authorities will not execute decisive actions on this matter with a sense of urgency, one day we will wake up to see that our country and her citizens are already in the arid and barren field of ignorance, misery and intellectual deprivation.

         If we truly care for the future of our children who are, since time immemorial considered as the hope of the nation, we will seriously consider the gravity of the problem and will do all means to thwart these boisterous dilemmas that threaten our very existence. Yes, it is true that teachers need to be properly trained and be fully equipped to qualify them to teach our children.

     Hence, there is a need to professionalize them through the licensure examination. However, if the government continues to ignore their plea for better compensation and brighter future in their chosen career, and instead of responding constructively to their clamor when they go to the streets to seek redress for their grievances, the same “humane” government slaps them with threats of suspension and even dismissal from services, we cannot expect these teachers to teach effectively and be satisfied with their work, thus, we definitely cannot expect quality education. This is due to the fact that the students are just as good as their teachers, and as the Lord Jesus Christ stressed in Matthew 22:14, “no student is better than his teacher.”

    The state authorities still claim that there is not enough money to fully implement the salary increase of teachers because the government does not have enough budget for this task. But if we try to carefully and objectively analyze the actual situation, we will realize that the national budget is devoured by the “foreign debt servicing scheme” via the provisions of P.D. 1177, which prescribes that the lion share of the annual budget (General Appropriations Act) be set aside to pay our foreign debts.

    But sad to say all initiatives in the Congress to repeal this burdensome Marcos’ decree has never prospered for reasons only the gentlemen in the Senate and House of Representatives know. And to add insult, to injury the national budget is further depleted by the “pork barrel” which amounts to several billions of pesos yearly given to senators and congressmen deceitfully labeled as countrywide development fund (CDF), which more often than not leads to budgetary deficits.

    And if there is a need for more revenues to finance the whims of the government, there is always an easy way to generate funds – levy more taxes to the people, just like Expanded Value Added Tax.

    If the government can afford to appropriate more than 35% of the national budget to repay the debts which the past administrative had acquired (yet failed to explain where the money went) and can provide the president, vice president, 24 senators and 250 congressmen their respective pork barrels by the millions and can increase the monthly salary of the legislators by 100% overnight, why can’t it spare the lowly paid teachers a small amount to augment their income? Are junketing, electioneering, and paying the private armies and others more important than educating our people?

    Every opening of the school year the CHED announces that there is a need for more teachers to meet the needs of increasing enrolment. In order to address this problem of lack of teachers, the CHED has to schedule as many as three teaching shifts, offer multi-grade classes (a teacher handles at least two different grades at the same time in one class) and increase the class size to 60 or 70 pupils per section. And as revealed by the teachers in the rural areas and far flung provinces, they are already handling as much as 70 to 90 students per section.

     Indeed, how can we expect quality education under this set-up? No matter how efficient a teacher is and regardless of his rating in the licensure and the subsequent merit examination, he is definitely incapacitated to control more than 90 students per section, much more delivering the goods to them. The way it seems the Philippine society particularly the government is asking too much from the teachers and yet giving them too little. With these in mind we cannot help it but ask ourselves that if education is expensive let us try the cost of ignorance.