MANILA, Philippines – Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Friday said he has filed a bill pushing for the establishment of a mandatory continuing education program for elementary and high school teachers.
The Senate Bill No. 367 or the Continuing Education for Teachers Act seeks the government to implement a comprehensive national program for mandatory continuing education for all teachers in both private and public educational institutions as well as formal and non-formal institutions of learning.
“As of this moment, there are no existing free programs for continuing teacher education in our country,” Gatchalian said in a statement, adding that teachers are left to their own devices if they wish to further develop their training and education.
“Acknowledging the need to continually educate our teachers and to further develop the teaching profession, this bill seeks to provide a mandatory teacher’s education program to be implemented by the government at no cost to our teacher,” he further said.
Under the bill, the mandatory continuing education program shall consist of at least 24 hours of compulsory continuing education activities each year. This will be held preferably at least eight hours per day on consecutive days, at the end of every school year and before the resumption of classes.
The program shall also be conducted in the school district where the teachers belong, as determined by the Department of Education (DepEd).
Teachers who possess a post-graduate degree are not covered by the proposed measure, but may opt to attend the program.
“Teacher effectiveness depends on whether they know what to teach and the best way to teach it,” the lawmaker said. “The environment in which teachers work has significantly changed over the past decades, yet the method of teaching has not been sufficiently adapted to the current times.”
“Unless actions to update teaching in the new environment take place, there will not be a substantial improvement in the quality of our students,” he stressed.
Gatchalian’s bill also orders DepEd to create an Executive Committee directly responsible for the effective implementation of the program.
The senator said a P100 million budget will be appropriated for the initial implementation of this program to be incorporated in DepEd’s annual budget.
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