THE Philippines should raise investments in teacher education, academic research experts from the Philippine Normal University (PNU) said in a study conducted from 2008 to 2012.
The study, led by Dr. Edna Luz R. Abulon, Educational Policy Research and Development Center director, said the Philippines now ranks the lowest in Asia with investment in teacher education at 2.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
Despite having poured in P4.386 billion for teacher preparation over the study period 2008 to 2012, the government still saw a high failure rate at 64.8 percent in the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET).
The government invested P59,366 per graduate over four years. Yet, this was grossly inadequate. The study covered an extensive number totalling 73,882 teacher education graduates (TEG) in 56 state universities and colleges (SUCs).
The Philippine government’s spending on education at 2.8 percent of GDP is the second lowest in Asia, just next to Cambodia, with 1.4 percent. Investment in the rest of Asia as percentage of GDP are 3.3 percent for Brunei, 4.3 percent in Thailand and 5.6 percent in Malaysia.
With the K to 12 Program in place, there is a pressing need to raise the number of teachers due to the added two more years in basic education. Raising investments in teacher training should result in higher hiring and retention of quality teachers, particularly in basic education (K to 12), consequently upgrading learning quality among the youth.
To determine the effectiveness of the government’s investment in teacher education, a cost analysis was conducted by comparing the General Appropriations Act figures with enrolment and graduation data in 56 SUCs selected out of 106.
Using the Philippine Statistics Authority’s quarterly Labor Force Survey from 2007 to 2011, the study analyzed wastage in government investment by comparing the number of TEGs that did not pursue a teaching job.
The study showed that six regions of the top 8 best LET performers (with lowest failure rate) from 2009 to 2012 were also those that received highest government support funding—National Capital Region (NCR) and Regions 6, 1, 5, 3 and 2.
“The study indicated the lower the education cost or government support, the greater the tendency to have higher percentage of failure in the LET,” Abulon said.
Also part of the PNU research team are Zyralie L. Bedural, Adonis P. David, Jaime V. Florentino, Antriman V. Orleans and Teresita T. Rungduin.
Region 5 got the highest government support in teacher preparation investment from 2008 to 2010, with P136.5 million, followed by NCR, with P129.6 million and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, with P126.9 million.
Among high-ranked reasons TEGs do not take teachings jobs are better appraisal in other jobs (better salary, better working conditions), need to support family (financially), mismatched personality with teaching, medical considerations and uncertainty in career choice about teaching.
From 2007 to 2011, just 59.54 percent of TEGs took teaching jobs, and the rest, 40.46 percent, went to do jobs elsewhere, the PNU authors said.
Based on the 2012 Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics survey, teaching jobs in private schools connote lower salary. Salary levels are comparative to those of bookkeeping clerks, call-center agents and air-travel clerks.
Since these competitor jobs are held in air-conditioned rooms versus non-airconditioned rooms in schools, TEGs preferred to take competitor jobs.
For legislation, there should be a review of directions in public spending in order to improve teacher education and a review of teachers’ salaries to attract more TEGs to seriously pursue teaching jobs.
For the national government, it should suspend or terminate teacher-education programs in SUCs with low LET passing rate.
The government should also review the recruitment policies of the Department of Education (DepEd) to speed up the hiring process for new teachers.
The government is also advised to enhance in-service teacher incentives and professional development for DepEd teachers in both public and private schools.
It should review admission and retention policy for preservice teachers so that these educators will commit to a lifelong teaching job and appreciate its nobility.
It is further suggested that PNU adopt strategies and programs so that SUCs and private teacher-education institutions (TEIs) with good LET record could help poor SUCs improve on LET performance.
The study also recommended policy improvements in the following areas:
- Further studies should be conducted on salary incentives that would attract quality teachers;
- Further research may be needed to study reasons for poor LET performance; a benchmarking study on admissions policy on teacher education in both government and private SUCs; and the development and standardization of teaching aptitude examination for TEIs nationwide;
- Give incentives to teachers primarily in the form of a more attractive compensation;
- Adopt policies in some Organisation of Economic Co-operation Development countries as the US that offer loan con-donation and signing bonuses to teachers;
- Adopt other developed country practices to retain teachers, including offering scholarships, special allowances, free computer and free housing and accommodation;
- Adopt incentives as those for new teachers in South Korea, which include preemployment training on classroom management, student counselling and teacher tasks; instructional guidance; student aptitude guidance; and supervision of clerical work;
- Adopt a recommendation from the 2011 International Summit on Teaching Profession that stressed the importance of boosting image of teachers and creating a professional working environment for them in order to attract more qualified teachers;
- Exclude qualified candidates for teacher education students from paying entrance examination fees and from filing some costly requirements (such as original National Statistics Office birth certificate), and application fee payments;
- Adopt policies institutionalizing best practices, such as an Mariano Marcos State University program offering scholarships for teacher education to honor high-school graduates, such as valedictorian, salutatorian, first to third honorable mention from a class of 50 or more students;
- Review current DepEd prohibition for teachers to teach in another school, which, perhaps, must be applied only on permanent teachers, but not on temporary teachers in order to help them enhance income;
- Cut further hiring period of the DepEd since division heads are given this responsibility, “taking several layers of authority”, which is why some teaching applicants just grab other jobs that are available. The DepEd may have claimed it reduced hiring period from eight to three months in 2013. But the study skipped the fact that some TEGs are first employed as volunteer teachers or as local government-funded teacher prior to DepEd hiring; and
- Adopt a compensation policy based on workload since some teachers shifted to jobs that are more “time-bound” (compared to teaching, a never-ending job where lesson preparation and grading reports have to be brought home).
“This particular result mirrored what have caused the ‘teacher loss phenomenon’ in some countries, like the US, Australia and the UK. Based on the results of these studies, teacher workload was identified as the common denominator when teachers were asked why they leave their professions,” the PNU study said.