The fate of teachers in our country

Today, our society is becoming more conscious of education. Student enrollment is rising especially in the rural areas. The good teachers are beginning to retire. Experts predict that overall we will need more than half a million new teachers in the next decade.

Recruiting teachers is becoming a problem. It is not only due to the fact that many teachers opt to work abroad but more so, teacher applicants nowadays barely qualify to teach. We have quite a good number of education graduates (although this can still improve) every year both from the urban and rural colleges and universities.

What is sad is the fact that teacher training institutions are becoming diploma mills more than ever. Monitoring and training of teachers seem to be more philosophical and theoretical than practical. Instead of producing qualified teachers there are more mediocre teachers coming out from the mills today.

The issue on teacher compensation is another concern. Teachers are still paid less than professions that require comparable education and skills. Teachers still are not valued and respected to the extent of their actual contributions to society but that will take another column.

My full time job is working at the O.B. Montessori Center. I am a teacher and yes a certified one with a PRC license. This is the time of the year that we recruit new teachers. It has been part of the school’s practice to invite new teachers, remove the weak ones and replace those who have decided to leave for one reason or another.

In the months of January and February, I have already seen applicants filling up the forms for teaching positions. Many of them come from good colleges and universities around Metro Manila a few come from the provinces. Last week, we started interviewing the applicants and out of 200 teacher applicants only 50 qualified for the initial interview. These 50 applicants were then given a battery of tests on verbal and math competencies and personality tests. Out of the 50 who took the test, only 30 made it. These 30 applicants qualified for the final interview. I was part of the panel of officers who interviewed the applicants – only 12 made it.

Isn’t it sad that out of the 200 applicants who have credentials from college transcripts, resumes, PRC licenses – only 12 have qualified? What does this tell us about the state of our teacher training institutions today? If we produce substandard teachers, how can they be able to impart knowledge and good values to our children? How can they all the more inspire the students to learn?

Why didn’t they pass the interview? You might ask. First, after assessing their credentials and qualifications, we check if they can speak good English. Many of them spoke broken English. Second, we look at their grooming and behavior. Many were not conscious of the professional look that they must possess. They were too casually dressed, not even properly groomed. How can the students respect such a teacher who is not conscious of his or her appearance? During the interview session, many applicants were very casual in the manner of answering questions. I wonder if they were ever trained or at least oriented to act professionally. In other words, they lacked the refinement of what is expected of a teacher. This led me to the third factor – when asked questions, the answers seemed too shallow. The foundation and knowledge acquired on to how to be a good teacher or a role model from the teacher training institutions seemed very weak. As a matter of fact, when asked basic questions on the role of teachers or even current events, many could not answer. What a shame.

I am glad we still have our own training program to make sure that we put good teachers in the classrooms. Even if the applicants have already graduated from the education degree, they will still have to go through more rigid training with us to prepare themselves for their work – how sad, this should have been already done in the 4-year teaching program they had already underwent. I wonder how other schools especially the public schools deal with this problem. No wonder our society is not progressing, many of the teachers in the classrooms are truly not qualified.

Research links student achievement to the qualifications of teachers. Therefore, if we want our society to prosper, we must seriously work on the improvement and enhancement of teacher training institutions. CHED must be very strict in the criteria set for these schools so that they can produce good teachers for our country. Passing the Licensing Exam for Teachers (or LET) is not enough. It should not be the only measure to qualify professional educators.

You know a teacher plays an important role in education. They become the role models to the young. Children especially the little ones look up to them. As William Arthur Ward once said, "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires."

The professional educator assumes responsibility and accountability for his or her performance and continually strives to demonstrate competence. The professional educator aims to maintain the dignity of the profession by respecting and obeying the law, and by demonstrating personal integrity.

The teaching profession is vested by the public with a trust and responsibility requiring the highest ideals of professionalism. Therefore, the teacher accepts both the public trust and the responsibilities to practice the profession according to the highest possible degree of ethical conduct and standards. Such responsibilities include the commitment to the students, the teaching profession, and the community.

DepEd, TESDA and CHED are the departments in government that should ensure the quality of teacher training institutions in our country; however, I think the public should also be concerned about this problem. I heard that there is a party list called A TEACHER (Advocacy for Teacher Empowerment through Action, Cooperation and Harmony towards Educational Reforms). I looked into their platform and was happy to note that it is headed by Atty. Ulan Sarmiento, a distinguished teacher, lecturer and lawyer specializing in educational law. The party has a good platform and it seems legit. I hope that they can do justice in helping our plight toward the improvement of teachers (in all aspects) in Congress. Instead of voting a party list that you really do not know, why not check this party list out for surely it will help protect our children and their teachers for our country’s future.