AFTER one year of school closures, we realized that perhaps no other sector sits closer to ground zero of the COVID-19 pandemic than education.
The so-called “COVID slide” will make our children COVID-19 long haulers, with experts warning that many in the “Gen Q” or Generation Quarantine having learned not enough will end up as adults earning not enough.
If we are to reverse the heavy damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic on the education of our young, what should be done?
First things first: improve teacher education, skills and proficiency to navigate a changed and challenging post COVID-19 world. As we talk about the future, the focus should not just be on infrastructure but most importantly on instruction.
Yes, we need wired schools, but we must not forget that all these physical advantages will be cancelled if there are no wise teachers. Teacher quality improvement was an important national assignment long before the pandemic began. Thus, we just simply cannot go back to the pre-COVID state of our schools.
In many regional and global testing of learners prior to the pandemic, Filipino students scored near the bottom in all subjects – a wake-up call that something must be done.
Alarmed over the declining learning outcomes, the Senate held hearings over the past three years on how to arrest this, and always teacher education is on the top of the to-do list. The product is the measure Senate Bill No. 2152.
The consolidated bill reported out by the Senate committee on basic education seeks the strengthening of the Teacher Education Council (TEC), updating its mandate “so it can meet all the things that need to be done to create a highly-competent and well-trained teaching corps.”
Indeed, in the campaign to improve teacher education, a reinforced and reoriented TEC will serve as the command center that will direct all programs aimed at producing better teachers.
We also have to address the fragmented system in producing the nation’s mentors. There is a need to harmonize and synchronize the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and Department of Education (DepED). The division of labor is that CHED issues the guidelines in teacher education. The PRC licenses teachers. The DepEd is the biggest absorber of the talent that CHED and PRC have accredited.
The problem is that the pre-service training by CHED, the licensure for service by PRC, and the in-service programs by DepEd do not often follow a seamless progression. This turfing harms teacher development. This negatively impacts on the learner, and we have test results to prove it.
But this is just one of many reasons for such. It is unfair and incorrect to solely blame teacher education. Improving the educational system is like a course with many subjects, and teacher development is but one of the many. But we have to do our homework now.
