After serving as Director of RCTQ for six years, Dr. Gina Gonong has been appointed as Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction of the Department of Education (DepEd).

Dr. Gonong’s career has been dedicated to the support and improvement of Philippine education. She was a classroom teacher, an associate professor in the area of Linguistics, and an academic administrative official. In 2013, she became Deputy Director, and then Director of RCTQ—the only research organization in the country devoted to improving teacher quality. In this latter role, she became known across the Philippines as she led and co-led many strategically focused national research projects that provided critical evidence to inform many DepEd policies.

VP and DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte swears in Dr. Gonong as Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction.

For over nine years, she worked closely with leaders and staff of the DepEd Office of the Secretary, the Bureau of Human Resource and Organizational Development (BHROD), the National Educators Academy of the Philippines (NEAP), and the Teacher Education Council (TEC) secretariat. She also supported DepEd regional directors and their staff, and various DepEd divisions and schools to ensure that policies or materials developed with RCTQ assistance were responsive to the needs of teachers and school leaders, and were shaped by the voice of the profession.

In particular, her efforts were focused on

  • the development and validation of the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST), the Philippine Professional Standards for School Heads (PPSSH) and the Philippine Professional Standards for Supervisors (PPSS);
  • the transformation of the National Educators Academy of the Philippines (NEAP) including structural and program transformation;
  • career progression for teachers and school heads;
  • performance management systems;
  • qualifying examination for school heads; and on the
  • development of teaching-learning resources, including materials to help teachers develop higher-order thinking skills in Mathematics, Science and English for learners to succeed in the 21st century.

Additionally, she was a member of the Malacañang-led Technical Working Group for Teacher Quality—chaired by then Cabinet Secretary, Karlo Nograles. The work of this group proposed the reform bill now called the Excellence in Teacher Education Act sponsored by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian. The bill was signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte as Republic Act 11713 on 27 April 2022. The law ensures a fundamental link in the teacher education development continuum from pre-service training to in-service professional development.

Now as a DepEd Undersecretary, Dr Gonong will lead the biggest bureaucracy in the country in the delivery of a relevant, responsive, and effective basic education curriculum.

Dr. John Pegg—Director of the University of New England SiMERR National Research Centre, and co-founder of RCTQ—said:

“Dr. Gonong’s extensive experience on tackling complex educational issues aimed at improving the quality of education in the Philippines makes her a most appropriate choice to take up this important leadership position in DepEd. Her abilities in organization and her insights into the needs of Philippine students, teachers and school heads will mean that she brings important skills and knowledge that will further enhance the senior leadership team of DepEd.”

Dr. Gonong is introduced at the DepEd flag ceremony on 7 November 2022 as the new Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction. Photo credit: DepEd International Cooperation Office.

In March 2022, Dr. Gonong was honored as the 2022 chairholder of the prestigious Bonifacio P. Sibayan Distinguished Professorial Chair in Applied Linguistics. The award was conferred via a virtual program by the Linguistic Society of the Philippines (LSP)—the premier linguistics organization in the country—in cooperation with the Philippine Normal University (PNU).

In his introduction, PNU President Dr. Bert J. Tuga described Dr. Gonong’s contributions to Philippine education as “truly remarkable.” He said:

“Dr. Gonong’s and RCTQ’s continued coordination and engagement with DepEd, CHED, and the Technical Working Group on Teacher Quality contributes toward the operationalization of existing standards so that our teachers will be globally competitive and nationally responsive to the needs of our Filipino learners.”

In Mindanao, Dr. Gonong led collaborations with the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao – Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (BARMM- MBHTE) through the Education Pathways to Peace Program supported by the Australian Government. She led the RCTQ team in the conduct of the Mapping Study of Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) Serving the BARMM, which aimed to gather baseline information about tertiary teacher education in BARMM.

On higher education, she jointly led the project called Curriculum Quality Audit (CQA) in PNU to ensure that the minimum standards based on the PPST are met in teacher education programs. The project later on expanded to support 23 Centers of Excellence (COEs) across the country with expectations that these COEs will help small colleges to improve their curriculum.

Outside of the Philippines, Dr. Gonong worked as a technical consultant for the Bhutan Ministry of Education in the development and validation of the Bhutan Professional Standards for Teachers. She worked with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Myanmar, and represented the Philippines in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei as an expert to review the proposed teacher education standards and framework for quality assurance of teacher education institutions in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Dr. Gonong holds a PhD in Linguistics from the Philippine Normal Univesity. In 2017, she was awarded with an Honorary Doctor of Letters (HonDLitt) by the University of New England Australia “in recognition of the pivotal role she has played in developing professional teaching standards in the Philippines, making it the first country in Asia to define teacher career direction.” In August 2019, she was awarded with a postdoctoral fellowship by UNE  for her leadership role in teacher education research in the Philippines.

In a concurrent capacity as PNU Vice President for Academics, former RCTQ Deputy Director Dr. Jennie V. Jocson succeeds Dr. Gonong as RCTQ Director effective 2 November 2022 (per PNU University Memorandum No. 190, s. 2022).

RCTQ joins the education sector in congratulating Dr. Gonong on her new role. Congratulations, Usec. Gina!

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After serving as Director of RCTQ for six years, Dr. Gina Gonong has been appointed as Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction of the Department of Education (DepEd). Dr. Gonong’s career has been dedicated to the support and improvement of Philippine education. She was a classroom teacher, an associate professor in...
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