K to 12 curriculum improves teacher quality

MANILA, Philippines - Long before the Department of Education went full stream with the K to 12 Curriculum, many of the half a million current public school teaching force were quietly being trained here and abroad to hone their skills, improve the quality of public education and bring back glory to the profession.

Under the leadership of Secretary Armin Luistro, the DepEd has provided young and old teachers alike, with opportunities to expose themselves to new learning and teaching methods which they eventually will impart to their students.

By tying up with private institutions and foundations like the Temasek Foundation of Singapore and Ateneo, programs like the Leaders and Educators in Asia Program (LEAP) is one avenue that DepEd has opened up for public school teachers since 2010. This program will bring to the Philippines Singaporean trainers to train Filipino public school mentors.

The LEAP is a continuing partnership which has become part of the policy, governance and capacity building program (PGCB) of Ateneo, Temasek and DepEd.

Two such products of this LEAP program, who underwent training in Singapore in 2008, were Sabrina Ongkiko and Princess Gatan, both public school teachers from Quezon City, who now serve as ambassadors to the GO! Education program of DepEd that conducts roadshows and campaigns around the country to spread the good news in Education for K to 12, teacher quality, and resources.

DepEd has also improved the salaries of teachers, standardizing them with national rates, so that teachers will not worry about their subsistence but will focus more on upgrading their teaching and communication skills to students.

Ongkiko and 110 other teachers, DepEd staff and other government employees are leaving soon for a year-long scholarship for their masteral degrees in Australia under the Australian Development Scholarship and the Australian Leadership Award Scholarship of the University of Melbourne. This program will not just improve skills of the participating teachers but will also help them improve their organizations.

DepEd also takes advantage of the increasing public interest in education by partnering with other institutions to provide services or to fill the gaps in education. So now there are a lot of programs like PBEd’s 1000 Teachers Program where the best and the brightest public high school students are encouraged, through scholarships supported with stipends, to take degrees in Education specifically majoring in English, Math and Science, to eventually teach in our public schools. There’s also Teach for the Philippines which recruits our best graduates from the top universities and deploy them in the public schools for 2 years. DepEd’s GO! Education campaign participating sponsors include AusAid, USAID, Lego, Power Mac and private foundations led by Philippine Business for Education Development (PBEd).