SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian on Friday said that the key to addressing teacher education woes is aligning teachers’ pre-service education with the needs of the Department of Education.

Gatchalian explained that pre-service education refers to teachers’ training before they become classroom teachers.

“DepEd has almost 85 percent of our students and close to 75 percent of our teachers. So my analysis is that if we fix and strengthen our public school system, we strengthen the entire country,” he said.

In his Senate Resolution 526, Gatchalian sought to determine the challenges and limitations affecting the quality of teacher education and training and a review of the performance of Teacher Education Institutions so that efforts can be directed towards strengthening their pre-service and in-service programs.

A study by the World Bank Group and Australian Aid showed that except for English elementary teachers, the average elementary or high school teacher in the Philippines could correctly answer fewer than half of questions on subject content tests.

During the hearing of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture, Gatchalian cited the low passing rates on Licensure Examination for Teachers.

He reiterated the need to improve the quality of teacher education and training in the country

“At the end of the day, what we want is better outcomes for our learners. Better outcomes come from better inputs and teacher quality and teacher education are part of those better inputs,” he stressed.

Gatchalian recalled the results of the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment which revealed that among 79 countries, the Philippines ranked lowest in Reading Comprehension and second lowest in Science and Mathematics.