Solon lauds remedial classes for teachers, pushes for more educational reforms

Press Release
By Alliance of Volunteer Educators (AVE)
April 21, 2006

MANILA, Philippines  –  A party-list solon lauded the program launched by the Department of Education (DepEd) where 37,000 public school teachers will be honed in Mathematics, English and Science in response to the call of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to address the deteriorating quality of Philippine education, but was quick to add that this is still not enough to solve the problem.

Alliance of Volunteer Educators (AVE) Party-list Representative Eulogio “Amang” R. Magsaysay said “the DepEd program is definitely a step in the right direction in our efforts to address the growing problem on education.”

“We are pleased with this re-training program and appreciate the fact that the initiative came from no less than the highest official in our country,” he stated, adding that “this is a manifestation that the President is being consistent with her 10-point agenda, where ‘education for all’ is stressed.” According to him, “as molders of the young, inquisitive minds, our teachers should be well-equipped in their craft and this includes undergoing re-training at least every year to enhance their skills.”

Magsaysay, a staunch advocate of education as the effective means of alleviating poverty in the country, believes that the Php581-million allocation for the said training is a good start. However, he stressed that the need for more programs that will ease the constraints faced by our teachers is still glaring. He cited the recent Social Weather Survey (SWS) report that the ‘self-assessed proficiency in the English language’ of Filipinos, especially on the ability to speak it, has ‘dropped over the past twelve years.’  This and the fact that only 6.59 percent of senior high school students have mastery of English based on the recent tests conducted by DepEd, only show the alarming state of English-teaching in our country today.

Although acknowledging the government’s budgetary constraints, Magsaysay is determined to reverse the declining quality of education with his House Bills 1189 and 1190 that seek to upgrade the salary grade level of public school teachers in elementary and secondary levels from grade 10 to grade 19 and provide further non-monetary benefits, respectively.

“Aside from constant retraining, our teachers are in dire need of receiving higher wage,” the lawmaker contends. “With only Php9,939 as their basic salaries, our teachers cannot help but seek greener pastures abroad where they could get higher remuneration. If only we can provide them the amount commensurate to their hard work and sacrifice, we will not lose them to foreign countries and suffer brain drain,” he said, adding that “most of the good teachers are already teaching abroad and that most of those who are left here are either fresh graduates or do not have the three basic foundation subjects as their major field of studies.”

Based on the 2003 Labstat Updates of the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics, from 112 in 1992, the number of teachers who left the country every year rose five times in 2002, with 586 of them opting to teach abroad.