SENATORS called on education agencies to tighten their coordination to implement reforms recommended by the Congressional Commission on Education to improve the country’s educational system.

Sen. Joel Villanueva, during a hearing held by the Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture on Wednesday, noted that several laws were passed and bills are in the pipeline as recommended by the EDCOM, including the amendments to the Teacher Education Council Act to institute reforms in the education sector.

However, the chairman of the  committee on Higher, Technical and Vocational Education said these reforms could not be fully achieved if there is lack of coordination among stakeholders.

Sen. Nancy Binay urged members of the TEC to attend meetings regularly to map out plans to improve the education and training of teachers.

Republic Act 7784 established the TEC to strengthen the education and training of teachers.

One of its major functions is to design collaborative programs that will enhance pre-service teacher training, inservice training, retraining, orientation and teacher development.

The secretary of the Department of Education is the council’s ex-officio chairman while the Commissioner of the Commission on Higher Education, representative of the Commission on Culture and Arts and the chairman of the Professionals Regulation Commission are the ex-officio members.

Meanwhile, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture, said that the result of the Programme for International Student Assessment was a wake-up call that there is a need for a better program to improve the skills of teachers.

Gatchalian cited the need to reform the TEC to improve the coordination and collaboration between education stakeholders and education institutions.