Senate, House ratify bicam report on unified TEC reform bill

Sen. Win Gatchalian introduces the bicameral conference committee report on the unified version of House Bill 10301 and Senate Bill 2152 on 31 January 2022.

The Senate and the House of Representatives approved the bicameral conference committee report on the unified version of House Bill 10301 and Senate Bill 2152—the bills that aim to amend RA 7784 or the Teacher Education Council Act of 1994—during their respective regular sessions on 31 January 2022.

In introducing the committee report during the Senate’s Session No. 37, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian—chair of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture—described the bill as “a sweeping piece of landmark legislation that will reform and improve the quality of the teacher education and training in the country.”

“This is a significant step forward addressing the perennial crisis hounding our education system particularly our basic education sector,” the senator said.

Sen. Joel Villanueva

Sen. Joel Villanueva, chair of the Senate Committee on Higher, Technical and Vocational Education and co-author of SB 2152, said the bicameral committee report underwent a very rigorous and painstaking process “not because of our current situation but because we want this bill to bring out excellence in teacher education”, and be able to “solve many of the problems we have in our education system.”

Differing provisions of the two measures were successfully reconciled at a bicameral conference committee meeting last 12-13 January 2022. Entitled “Excellence in Teacher Education Act,” Senator Gatchalian said the measure seeks to revamp the Teacher Education Council (TEC) by strengthening coordination between the Department of Education (DepEd), the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).

Under the said bill, Sen. Gatchalian said the TEC will “set and mandate basic requirements for teacher education programs to ensure a strong and transparent link between the outcomes of teacher education programs and the professional standards for teachers and school leaders, research and international best practices.” The TEC, he added, “will quality assure these basic requirements, monitor the compliance of Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs), and ensure that the CHED is implementing these requirements.”

“While our learners are lagging behind in their academic performance, it is equally alarming to see how low the passing rates in our licensure examinations for teachers or LET have been. Most of TEIs are considered “worse” or “poor performing,” the senator said. Between 2010 and 2021, he added, “only 36% of secondary education takers passed the LET, while only 28% passed at the elementary level.”

Members of the TWG for Teacher Quality

RCTQ helped draft the first version of the bill in 2020 in collaboration with the Malacanang-led Technical Working Group for Teacher Quality (TWG-TQ) where RCTQ Director Gina Gonong is a member. The work of the TWG-TQ was supported by President Rodrigo Duterte who, in 2019, directed the Office of the Cabinet Secretariat headed by Sec. Nograles to organize a “national effort for quality basic education” and to conduct interagency discussions towards this end.

Meeting between RCTQ, Rep. Romulo, Sec. Nograles and PNU President Dr. Bert J. Tuga in 2020

“If we want to aim so high as a nation, we need to support our teachers. Whatever is good for our teachers is also good for the country. They deserve nothing less from us,” Sec. Nograles said during the second Senate committee hearing on the proposed bill in 2020.

The bicameral body was co-chaired by the following Members of Congress: Reps. Roman Romulo (Pasig City) and Mark Go (Baguio City), chairpersons of the House Committees on Basic Education and Culture, and Higher and Technical Education; and Senators Gatchalian and Villanueva.

Also present during the conference committee meeting were Rep. Gabriel Bordado Jr. (3rd District, Camarines Sur), Rep. Ruth Mariano-Hernandez (2nd District, Laguna), and Rep. Kristine Alexie Tutor (3rd District, Bohol). On the part of the Senate, the meeting was also attended by Senator Ramon Bong Revilla Jr., Senator Pia Cayetano and Sen Riza Hontiveros.

At the House of Representatives regular session, the bicameral report was presented by Camiguin Rep. Xavier Jesus Romualdo and was approved by the 298 House members in attendance.

During the second reading of House Bill 10301 in November 2021, Rep. Romulo said the reform bill will empower the Department of Education to determine how future teachers will be trained in college.

“It is time that we authorize the Department of Education to take authority over minimum standards and qualifications given to our students taking up education courses in the tertiary level,” Rep. Romulo said.

The minimum requirements for teacher education programs offered by teacher education institutions (TEIs) are currently being handled by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) through its Technical Panel for Teacher Education.

He also stressed the need for the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) to share with the TEC examination questions that they administered during previous Licensure Examinations for Teachers (LET).

The bill will also “uphold and maintain the integrity of the professional standards for teachers and school leaders, establish policies to implement a system of recognition affirming the career stages achieved by basic education teachers and school leaders based on professional standards, and institute and maintain a pool of national assessors for such recognition.”

PNU President Dr. Bert Tuga hailed the ratification as a great step towards the future of teacher education and teacher quality.

“A strengthened TEC will ensure that teacher education programs across the country are responsive to the needs of DepEd, aligned with international standards, and truly contribute to the improvement of the quality of basic education in our schools,” Dr. Tuga said.

Dr. Gonong congratulates and thanks all members of both houses who supported, voted and defended the reform bill during various meetings and legislative hearings in their respective chambers.

“I truly appreciate how our lawmakers saw the importance of this bill in terms of its impact on the kind of education that we will be handing down to our future generations. I specifically thank and congratulate Sen. Gatchalian, Sen. Villanueva, Cong. Romulo and Cong. Mark Go for their legislative leadership that helped turn the vision espoused by this proposed bill into almost a reality now,” said Dr. Gonong.

The ratification brings the proposed measure one step closer to getting signed as a national law by President Rodrigo Duterte. (RCTQ/AYana)

Watch the approval of the bicameral report on SB 2152 and HB 10301 in both houses through the two videos below: