The Manila Times
HELPING ASPIRING TEACHERS
by : Dr Carl E. Balita
WE badly need the best teachers. With Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte admitting that “the Filipino learners are not academically proficient,” the learning crisis is real. And resiliency is not something education has already achieved in the post-pandemic era.
The Education Commission 2 (EdCom 2) report highlighted, among various considerations, the imperative of harmonizing policies and programs across key educational bodies. These stakeholders include the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), which establishes the minimum requirements for teacher education institutions offering programs; the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), tasked with overseeing the licensing of teachers teaching at the elementary and secondary levels; and the Department of Education (DepEd), the largest employer of teachers.
In a report “Miseducation: The Failed System of Philippine Education,” EdCom 2 flagged that passing rates in the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) have been low, and the quality assurance of teacher education institutions is weak.
Blaming teacher education?
The Philippine Business for Education (PBEd), an advocacy group founded and funded by some of the business leaders in the country, cited the low teacher education qualification as a major factor in the low-quality education and poor performance of students. The government’s socioeconomic policy think tank, the Philippine Institute for Developmental Studies (PIDS), stated that low teacher qualification was a major factor in the low-quality education and poor performance of students.
My institution, Carl Balita Review Center (CBRC), did a tracer of the LET since 2008 covering 15 years and 31 board exams, and concluded that the average passing is only 34.75 percent. CBRC concluded that for the past 10 years, from 2013 to recent 2023, the Professional Regulation Commission-Board of Professional Teachers gave the Board Licensure Examination for Professional Teachers (Blept/LET) to a total of 1,116,601 graduates of Bachelor of Elementary Education where 354,802 (31.78 percent) became licensed professional teachers, and a total of 1,439,560 graduates of Bachelor of Secondary Education where 605,605 (42.07 percent) passed across eight majorship or specialization areas.
CBRC also noted that in the March 2023 Blept, out of the 1,362 colleges and universities offering teacher education, only 228 (21.15 percent) had a passing rate of more than 75 percent. One hundred sixty schools (11.75 percent) had no or zero passers in elementary education. In the same board examination, for secondary education, only 309 (15.23 percent) out of 2029 schools had a passing rate of more than 75 percent, while 292 schools (14.40 percent) had no or zero passing.
Fifty-six percent of the schools nationwide offering teacher education had below-average passing rates in the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) since 2010 (PBEd). Only 2 percent of schools offering teacher education were classified as high performing. Even the TEI’s expected to perform best because of their accreditation status failed the expectations. Out of the 111 schools under the classifications of Center of Excellence (COE) and Center of Development (COD), more than 81 percent of COEs and 91 percent of CODs were not high performing in the licensure exams (PBEd).
Between 2012 and 2022, 77 higher education institutions (HEIs) offering Bachelor of Elementary Education and 105 HEIs offering Bachelor of Secondary Education continued operations despite having consistently zero passing rates in the LET (PBEd).
Quality in question
The teacher education graduates’ poor performance in the LET puts the teacher quality into question (PBEd). And then its recommendation to phase out poorly performing teacher education institutions. Dr. Edizon Fermin, the chairman of the Teacher Education Council, mentioned in a Senate hearing the drafting of a CHEd memorandum order on the gradual phasing out of teacher education institutions (TEIs) that are low performing in the Blept and the non-complaint TEIs. And CHEd Chairman Prospero de Vera confirmed this in conversation with me.
Question for reflection
In the first place, is the LET reliable enough to be the best measure of the performance of TEIs and as the major basis for their phaseout? Is there alignment between the learning outcomes prescribed by the CHEd Teacher Education Curriculum and the Table of Specification (TOS) of the Board of Professional Teachers? For example, how do they expect Bachelor in Physical Education graduates to pass the LET with majorship in music, arts, physical education and health (Mapeh)? Also, what do we expect of the Bachelor of Technical Vocational Teacher Education (BTVTED) graduates who will take the LET with Technology Livelihood Education (TLE) majorship with very wide 12 areas, mostly not covered by the specific curriculum?
Also, is the LET following the TOS in the formulation of the test questions? That is for the board and the test takers to know because the questions are not released to the public except for those alleged copies being sold (and illegally obtained) right in front of the PRC office in Morayta.
Barking up the wrong tree
While indeed teacher education needs improvement, could we be barking up the wrong tree in blaming colleges of education for the poor performance of our learners in basic education as evidenced by dismal international assessments?
Only licensed teachers are qualified to apply for ranking and hiring by the DepEd. Only the best 1,315,209 (51 percent) of these 2,556,161 LET takers since 2013 became available to teach in our government’s basic education system. Why blame teacher education, judged for its poor LET performance, for the poor performance of our learners in basic education who are taught by the passers of the LET?
Solutions we offer
The CBRC conducted the National Aptitude Normative Test for Educators (Nante) among 23,177 graduating education students in 296 TEI’s (54 percent private, 46 percent public) across 17 regions in April 2024.
The Nante used two sets of questionnaires, professional education and general education, across 10 subject areas each. The Nante was aligned with the CHEd prescribed competencies (CMO 74-75, series of 2017) and the board’s TOS (Resolution 11, series of 2022), with reference to recent recall questions from the actual board. Test construction passed through the rigors of item analysis and processes to ensure validity and reliability. The passing rate was set at 70 percent in consideration of factors.
Findings indicated that the national passing rate is 56.49 percent (12,485 out of 23,177). The passing rate is 53.87 in general education and 56.33 in professional education. The overall national mean score is 71.14 percent (70.85 percent in General Education, 71.32 percent in professional education). Schools in Region 2 or Cagayan Valley (71.89 percent) and the National Capital Region (71.6 percent) performed highest. Statistical analyses indicated significant differences in the performances of schools across subjects as classified per subject, per region and TEI classifications. In general education, examinees performed highest in the subject Art Appreciation (75.69) and Life and Works of Rizal (72.31), and lowest in reading in Philippine History and Society (66.79), and English Communication (68.51). .
In professional education, examinees scored highest in Foundations of Special and Inclusive Education (75.26), and Methods and Strategies of Teaching (73.65), and lowest in The Teacher and School Curriculum (65.82), and Field Studies (66.42). .
The findings will be presented to education stakeholders as contribution to data that may guide policymaking. The findings are analyzed to provide national, regional, provincial norms for participating schools to serve as a guide for curricular and instructional improvements. The test-takers will be given guidance on their individual performance relative to institutional, provincial, regional and national norms across the subject areas. .
The CBRC has also rolled out writeshops on TOS-alignment and metacognitive test construction to enable faculty to prepare the aspiring teachers not only for the competencies teaching but also for the board examination. .
There is hope in education, if we help the teachers. .
Acknowledgement to the CBRC Mancom and Nante team headed by Iah Seraspi, Mariz Tadle, Jayson Jimenez and the whole of CBRC for this Nante. .
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