DepEd to boost teacher training
FOLLOWING its poor showing in a 2022 global learning assessment, the Philippines said on Thursday that it seeks to boost teacher training and address bullying in schools.
The Department of Education (DepEd) will focus on improving teaching quality in the coming months, agency spokesman Michael T. Poa said at a news briefing after a meeting with President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., which was also attended by Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio.
“He wants teachers to have expertise,” Mr. Poa said. “He emphasized the necessity of proper training programs for our teachers — of course, [this is] hand in hand with teachers’ welfare.”
The President wants teachers to be better equipped with technology so they could do better, he added.
Filipino students were still among the world’s weakest in math, reading, and science, according to the 2022 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).
The PISA ranked the Philippines at No. 77 out of 81 countries for performing worse than the global average in all categories.
“The President regards them (teachers) as the most important, and we agree, teaching quality will really improve,” Mr. Poa said. “He believes around 60% improvement will be achieved if we can improve the teaching quality.”
The agency will conduct a scoping review to determine the number of teachers who have gadgets.
“We will really train all of our teachers because there have been so many changes in technology, even in a span of a year,” he said, adding that the DepEd may also train teachers on how to use artificial intelligence.
“So that’s something we are looking at,” he said. “We will use, of course, the training facility of DepEd to do that.”
DepEd Undersecretary Gina Gonong cited the need for the DepEd to partner with universities to train education students in using technology in teaching.
Meanwhile, Mr. Poa said the agency would also focus on improving students’ nutrition and address bullying in schools to address the country’s learning challenges.
He said the government’s school-based feeding program can now be sustained for the whole year due to increased allocation from Congress under the 2024 national budget.
“For the school-based feeding program, we had a P5.6-billion budget for 2023. The budget has been increased [for] this year to P11.7 billion,” he said. “What does that mean? It means that because of the increased funding, we can cover the whole year.” — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza