RCTQ marked its 10th founding anniversary with a formal program on 18 November 2022 attended by education champions in government led by Vice President and Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sara Duterte as keynote speaker.

Titled Celebrating RCTQ Partnership: High-Impact Policy Research for 10 Years and Counting, the event celebrated the partnerships and accomplishments of RCTQ, and revisited its ten-year journey that led to the development of high-impact research products, which have informed many of the country’s education policies.

VP Duterte, in her speech, acknowledged RCTQ’s role as DepEd’s partner in developing professional standards for teachers and school leaders.

VP and DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte

“Our journey started when the Philippine government enacted RA 10533 or the enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013. The K to 12 reforms required high quality teachers to improve student learning outcomes and eventually quality education. To help us achieve this, RCTQ invested over three years of rigorous research and consultations to produce the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST),” Duterte said.

She also recalled how, inspired by the success of the PPST, RCTQ spent another three rigorous years of research and validation to produce the professional standards for school heads and supervisors.

The PPST became a DepEd policy when DepEd Order No. 42, s. 2017 was issued on 11 August 2017 to provide guidelines for the national adoption and implementation of the nationally-validated professional standards. The Philippine Professional Standards for School Heads (PPSSH) was signed as a policy through DepEd Order 24, s. 2020 while the Philippine Professional Standards for Supervisors (PPSS) was operationalized through DepEd Order 25, s. 2020.

The Vice President, who also unveiled RCTQ’s coffee table book at the event, added: “Through RCTQ’s help in embedding these standards in our human resource systems, DepEd is now able to issue more informed policies on teacher hiring, promotion, and career progression, teacher professional development, and rewards and recognition. Working with RCTQ affirms the Department’s commitment to crafting education policies founded on research.”

“RCTQ has also been instrumental in the transformation of the National Educators’ Academy of the Philippines (NEAP) by providing research evidence and detailed design that have streamlined and improve the delivery of professional development programs so that they are responsive to the career growth of our teachers and school heads,” said Duterte.

On sustaining the DepEd-RCTQ partnership, Duterte said: “I consider our teachers as our most important resource, and I believe taking good care of them will help us speed up the process of improving the quality of education in our country. This is where DepEd and RCTQ can strengthen our collaboration.”

Duterte said that it was the “laudable and impressive tenacity and determination of the researchers and leaders driving RCTQ” that made her hire former RCTQ Director Dr. Gina Gonong who now serves as her Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction. At the celebration, RCTQ, led by current Director Dr. Jennie Jocson and Co-Director Dr. John Pegg, paid tribute Dr. Gonong’s leadership of the Center for the last six years.

Joining Duterte were fellow education leaders and advocates from the executive and legislative branches of government including Senator Win Gatchalian, Civil Service Commission Chair Karlo Nograles, and Commission on Higher Education(CHED) Chair Dr Popoy de Vera. The Australian government was represented by its new ambassador to the Philippines, Hae Kyong (HK) Yu, PSM.

In his message, Sen. Gatchalian—chair of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture—thanked RCTQ “for helping policymakers come up with meaningful legislation and policy.”

“I thank RCTQ for being a partner of the Committee on Education. It is an opportunity and pleasure of working with Dr. Gina and Dr. Jennie and crafting a very important reform legislation,” Gatchalian said.

RCTQ worked with Gatchalian and his committee from 2020 as a resource organization for what started as a Teacher Education Council (TEC) Act amendatory bill, which was signed into law in 2022 as RA 11713 or the Excellence in Teacher Education Act.

In his ceremonial toast, former Cabinet Secretary and now Chair of the Civil Service Commission Atty. Karlo Nograles said that as “we celebrate the long-standing partnership that was established to improve the quality of education through high impact policy research on strengthening teacher quality, we recognize the efforts and commitment of the RCTQ and its partners who became part of this transformative journey.”

“I’m immensely proud to have worked with RCTQ in pushing for the signing of the Excellence in Teacher Education Act into law,” Nograles said.

As cabinet secretary, Nograles was instrumental in bringing national focus to teacher quality. He led and scaled up the Malacañang-led Technical Working Group for Teacher Quality (TWG-TQ) with RCTQ as a member.

Philippine Normal University President Dr. Bert Tuga, University of New England  Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research Prof. Michael Wilson, RCTQ Director Dr. Jennie Jocson and UNE SiMERR Director Dr. John Pegg welcomed guests and led the afternoon celebration at the Rizal Park Hotel, Manila.

VP Duterte and Ambassador Yu both lauded RCTQ for its work on the national professional standards for teachers, school heads and supervisors. RCTQ’s presence in Mindanao was also recognized in Pathways projects for higher educaton and Madrasah education.

Also represented at the celebration were the Bangsamoro Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education(MBHTE) represented by Higher Education Director General Marjuni Maddi; the Australia-supported Education Pathways to Peace in Mindanao program; and the National Network of Normal Schools (3NS).

In 2012, the Australian and Philippine governments agreed to establish a research center to be called the Philippine National Research Center for Teacher for Teacher Quality. Based at PNU Manila, RCTQ is a partnership between the PNU and the UNE through its SiMERR National Research Centre, supported by the Australian government. (RCTQ Comms)

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RCTQ marked its 10th founding anniversary with a formal program on 18 November 2022 attended by education champions in government led by Vice President and Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sara Duterte as keynote speaker. Titled Celebrating RCTQ Partnership: High-Impact Policy Research for 10 Years and Counting, the event celebrated the...