Carl Marc Ramota, Anak ng Bayan Youth Party spokesman, said many of those who pass the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) given every year by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) never actually teach in the country.
"Some of them eventually abandon their profession in favor of jobs that are available here or abroad," he said. "Teachers who are supposed to supply the brains — so to speak — for the country’s youth are themselves part of the brain drain."
Ramota said data from the Alliance of Concerned Teachers show there is a shortage of teachers this school year.
"Ironically, while the public schools are experiencing a shortage of teachers, thousands of college hopefuls flock to teacher education programs every year," he said.
But despite the hiring of 10,000 new teachers by the Department of Education (DepEd), their number in public schools remains pegged at 49,699, he added.
Ramota said records at the PRC show that only a fraction of the thousands who flock to teacher education programs stick it out in their chosen profession.
Specifically, only a little more than a 100,000 education students reach the fourth year, he added.
Ramota said the 2003 LET only registered a 26 percent passing rate — or conservatively, 26,000 certified teachers — for both elementary and secondary education.
"This is a far cry from the number of those who enroll every year, at least 400,000. It represents only 25 percent of those who graduate," he said.
Ramota said of the more than 100,000 education graduates from various schools, only a few pass the examinations for teachers.
"Many teacher education institutions are producing half-baked graduates who add up to the bulk of LET non-passers and unemployed or underemployed teachers," he said.
"Even these schools are now being turned into mere for-profit diploma mills rather than as a training ground for future mentors."
Ramota said in the Philippines, education is the second most popular college program, and more than 400,000 college graduates aspire to become teachers every year.
Practically almost all tertiary or college level institutions in the country offer a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education, he added.
Ramota said the worsening employment picture, stagnant salaries and other economic woes are pushing some 2,800 Filipinos to go abroad.
According to Ramota, some of these teachers can only find work as domestic helpers.
"The employment crisis, low salary and unrealistic professional regulation policies continue to plague the education profession," he said.
"Education is an avowed priority of the state but under the present administration — like its predecessors — it does not draw an ounce of sympathy from the authorities."
The future of teachers remains bleak under the Arroyo administration, he added.
Ramota said if the government and the DepEd will not do anything to arrest this alarming trend, the country will see more classrooms without teachers despite an oversupply of education graduates.
"Teachers have all the reason to leave the country since the government is not giving them the right compensation and the respect they deserve as educators," he said.
"It is the government’s inaction over teachers’ legitimate demands for salary increases and other benefits that drives more teachers and fresh education graduates out of schools where they really belong."
Ramota fears the problems of teacher shortages and poor academic performance on the LET may lead to a further slide in the country’s educational standards.
"All these send a distressing signal to the education sector," he said.
"We could only imagine what kind of students we are producing if their teachers are not adequately equipped with the skills."
Ramota said a teacher’s starting salary is only P9,939 a month, a little higher than the minimum wage in Metro Manila.
In April 2005, the family living wage in the latter — the amount needed to fulfill the needs of a family of six — was pegged at P618.09 daily or P18,542.70 monthly, he added.
From school years 1994 to 1995 and 2001 to 2002, enrollment for education and teacher training went up by 46.20 percent — reaching 439,549 in 2001.
Each year, US school districts need to hire around 200,000 teachers — the demand is so high that private recruiters plan to place at least a million foreign teachers in American classrooms until 2007.
Reports by Migrante International show that some 20 percent of the estimated 160,000 Filipinos working as domestics in Hong Kong, Singapore and countries in the Middle East, were former teachers or at least had a teaching background before going abroad.
Since 2001, the salaries of government employees, which include teachers, have been frozen. The last salary increases were given in 2000, a 10-percent increase, or P440; and five percent in 2001, or P242.
A study released by the International Labor Organization and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization shows that teachers in the Philippines work an average of 1,176 hours per year and teach classes of over 50 students.