SENATE Minority Leader Koko Pimentel stressed that quality learning is contingent upon quality teaching.

“If we can spend billions on missiles and submarines, why don’t we spend on this program for teacher education?” said Pimentel, EDCOM 2 Chairperson on the Sub-committee on Teacher Education.

The Second Congressional Commission on Education and World Bank discussed the urgent need to invest in quality teacher education and actions to address the prevailing concerns on pre-service teacher programs in the country, including quality assurance.

For his side, PIDS President Anicieto Orbeta said teacher education and development in the Philippines faces serious challenges, including underperforming teaching education institutions.

“This fact is exemplified by the very low passing rates in professional board examinations, which are lower than those of other professions. Such statistics underscore the urgent need for reform and improvement in our TEIs to ensure that they produce highly competent and effective teachers critical for student learning,” he said.

Data shows that performance in teacher licensure examinations has been dismal, hovering at an average passing rate of 33% for elementary and 40% for secondary.

“What is worse is that based on our analysis, between 2012 to 2022, many higher education institutions (HEIs) or teacher education providers— 77 offering Bachelor of Elementary Education, and 105 offering Bachelor of Secondary Education, continued to operate despite having zero passing rates. This calls for improved quality assurance among our HEIs,” said EDCOM II Executive Director Karol Mark Yee.

ED Yee also shared EDCOM 2’s findings on the misalignments in pre-service training and in-service subjects taught.