Villar bats for quality teachers

Sen. Manuel Villar has filed two separate bills to improve the quality of teachers in the country and establish national teacher academies to encourage more people to be teachers.

These measures will address the problems of poor quality and shortage of teachers, he said.

"We are not only losing doctors and nurses, even our teachers are leaving our shores for greener pastures abroad. On top of this, the quality of the teachers we have is also deteriorating. We need to make sure that teachers are very well qualified since our children’s education is in their hands," Villar said.

He cited the results of a recently conducted Self Assessment Test (SAT) for English conducted by the Department of Education (DepEd), where only 19 percent of 53,000 high school teachers who took the test passed.

DepEd officials said most teachers’ failing SAT marks for English is the reason why most students have learning problems in English as well. In the National Achievement Test (NAT) given to nearly a million graduating students in high school in March, 97.9 per cent failed. Moreover, only 65 per cent of the 1.6 million graduating students in elementary school passed the High School Readiness Test (HSRT).

"Low salaries and the declining status of the teaching profession have reduced both the quantity and quality of individuals entering the teaching profession. The government must address the existing and impending teacher shortage in the country," Villar said.

Villar’s measure aims to meet the need to recruit, prepare and retain a high-quality and diverse supply of elementary and secondary education teachers.

Another bill Villar filed seeks to put up national teacher academies to encourage more people to take up teaching jobs. He also proposed that funds be allocated to programs that would boost the recruitment and training of Filipino teachers.