Duterte supports bill amending the TEC law – Nograles
President Rodrigo Duterte is supporting the bill that seeks to amend the Teacher Education Council (TEC) Law and strengthen teacher quality in the Philippines.
Secretary Nograles at the Senate hearing on SB 1887 or the proposed amendment of the Teacher Education Council (TEC) law on 4 November 2020.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei Nograles shared the President’s position on the proposed bill in his opening message last November 4 during the Senate hearing on Senate Bill 1887 filed by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian. The hearing was co-chaired by Senator Gatchalian, Chair of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture; and Senator Joel Villanueva, Chair of the Senate Committee on Higher, Technical, and Vocational Education.
“The executive branch is right behind and fully supportive of this bill as directed by the President himself in our 43rd Cabinet meeting,” Nograles said.
Secretary Nograles shared that during the cabinet meeting on 6 November 2019, Pres. Duterte directed the Office of the Cabinet Secretary (OCS) “to organize a national effort for quality basic education and conduct inter-agency discussions for teacher quality and on how to best address the low learner outcomes reflected by the Philippines in many assessments and many other issues related to teacher quality.”
Senate Bill 1887, he said, is a product of three years of inter-agency work and research.
Asked by Senator Gatchalian whether the bill has the imprimatur of no less than President Duterte, Nograles replied with ‘Yes’ and said that ‘the President sees the need to strengthen teacher education in the Philippines before his administration ends.’
RCTQ has worked with the Technical Working Group for Teacher Quality (TWG-TQ) since 2017 when it was chaired by then Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco, Jr. Secretary Nograles succeeded Evasco as TWG chair in 2019.
The proposed law seeks to ensure the link and alignment of pre-service education with in-service education, and improve the coordination between the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and other agencies like theProfessional Regulation Commission (PRC) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in order to improve teacher education outcomes.
He further said: “While education issues can be addressed from multiple viewpoints, the Office of the Cabinet Secretary has been in dialog with key agencies since 2017 through the Technical Working Group for Teacher Quality (TWG-TQ) to find a practical solution to address these problems through the lens of teacher quality. Like what many education experts have said, nothing in any education system can work without an adequate supply of quality teachers.”
Watch the full message of Secretary Nograles and his interactions with the senators on November 4:
https://www.rctq.ph/?p=2037NewsPre-Service Teacher Education,Teacher Education Council,TWG-TQ
