CAMARINES Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr. filed a measure seeking to improve and strengthen the recruitment and training of Filipino teachers.

In pushing for House Bill 8526 or the proposed Improving the Quality of Teachers Act, Villafuerte stressed the difficulty of recruiting qualified teachers.

The measure aims to help meet the national need to recruit, prepare and retrain skilled and competent elementary and secondary education teachers, and to help meet the needs of schools in urban and rural areas.

House Bill 8526 authorizes support for partnership among institutions of higher education that operate exemplary teacher preparation programs.

This will encourage them to adopt the best practices and strategies.

“Many uncertain individuals annually enter teaching because schools, frequently those in urban and rural areas with large concentrations of children from low-income families, cannot find all the certified and competent teachers they need,” Villafuerte said in his explanatory note.

While the government cannot provide the needed improvements in teacher preparation, he said it can make limited and targeted investments.

It can also encourage more Filipinos to serve as teachers in indigent communities.