SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian is pressing for the full roll out of the Excellence in Teacher Education Act, as an advocacy group decried the persistently low passing rates in the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET).
Based on the Philippine Business for Education’s study on the Board Licensure Examination for Professional Teachers between 2010 and 2022, the passing rate for overall takers at the elementary level is only 37 percent, and 40 percent for the secondary level.
The report further revealed that, according to the overall passing rates of Teacher Education Institutions with at least 300 takers in at least seven out of 12 years, the share of high-performing TEIs at the elementary level is only 2.2 percent, and 2 percent at the secondary level. High-performing TEIs have an overall passing rate of at least 75 percent in at least seven out of the 12 years from 2010 to 2022.
From the same period, the rating of low-performing TEIs—or those with an overall passing rate of at most 25 percent—is 34.8 percent at the elementary level, and 24.4 percent at the secondary level.
According to Gatchalian, the Excellence in Teacher Education Act, or Republic Act 11713, is already in place and needs full implementation to address low passing rates of the LET, and to increase the number of high-performing TEIs.
The law, which he authored and sponsored, seeks to improve the quality of teacher education and training via a revamped Teacher Education Council (TEC), which will boost the coordination among the Department of Education (DepEd), the Commission on Higher Education, and the Professional Regulation Commission.
The TEC, according to the senator, will ensure coherence in teacher education and training from pre-service to in-service.
Gatchalian, who is the chair of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, said in Filipino that, in the quest to elevate the quality of learning received by the Filipino youth, it is likewise vital to ensure that their teachers receive superior education, especially that they have a key role in shaping the minds of students.
In her 2023 Basic Education Report presentation, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte said that the DepEd aims to make the new TEC and its secretariat fully functional.
Duterte added that the TEC will start working on its mandates—including the basic requirements setting for preservice teacher-education programs in the country.