TWG for Teacher Quality begins drafting amendments of TEC law
With technical assistance from RCTQ, the Malacañang-backed Technical Working Group for Teacher Quality (TWG-TQ) has started drafting a bill that aims to amend the law that created the Teacher Education Council (TEC).
The TWG, led by Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, virtually met on 24 July 2020 to discuss and agree on areas of amendments of Republic Act No. 7784, a law enacted in 1994 that sought to establish Centers of Excellence in teacher education, and created the Teacher Education Council (TEC). The Council has been mandated “to formulate policies and standards that shall strengthen and improve the system of teacher education in all existing public and private schools, and identify and designate Centers of Excellence (COE) in teacher education,” among others.
Twenty six years after the law was enacted, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the “the current education system is not organized to allow the three primary education departments to focus genuinely and at a deeper level on the quality of teachers and school leaders,” referring to the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
These gaps in the nation’s quality of education, he said, have been shown through the many national assessments, and recently through the country’s poor performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2018).
The proposed bill focuses on teacher and school leader quality by strengthening the TEC and refining its functions based on its mandate. When passed into law, it would help bring about significant changes in supporting and managing the quality of education provision in schools.
The strengthened TEC, as envisioned by the new bill, “would provide national leadership for promoting excellence so that schools, teachers, and school leaders, as well as tertiary education institutions and teacher educators, have the maximum impact on student learning in all Philippine schools.”
Secretary Nograles was joined by members of the TWG-TQ including CHED Commissioner Aldrin Darilag; DepEd Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio, TESDA Senior Specialist Mr. Alfonso Francisco, and TEC Secretariat Executive Director Dr. Runvi Manguerra at the meeting.
Other members of the TWG who were present were Dr. Cristina Mañabat from the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA); Dr. Hilda Montaño of Western Visayas State University (WVSU); Dr. Gina Gonong of RCTQ; education advocate Dr. Ricardo Ma. Nolaso, and former Valenzuela City congressman Atty. Magtanggol Gunigundo representing the private sector.
The TWG was initially convened under the leadership of Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. Last year, President Rodrigo Duterte directed the OCS and CHED to organize a “national effort for quality basic education” and to conduct interagency discussions towards this purpose. With assistance from RCTQ, the TWG produced a report called Making Quality Practice Common Practice: Enhancing Teacher and School Leader Quality in the Philippines which became the basis for the discussions, and eventually, proposal to amend RA 7784.
https://www.ritq.ph/?p=1646NewsTeacher Education Council,TWG-TQ
