DepEd defends teachers over Filipino student's poor performance in int'l education assessments

Earlier reports about how the country's students perform poorly in previous international education assessments draws flak from netizens.

On Thursday, Education Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio defended teachers saying that many teachers entering the workforce are prepared to deliver what is expected of them. 

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian asked San Antonio during the Senate hearing if the Department of Education (DepEd) is satisfied with the teachers’ education that is being given in the pre-service level. 

Generally, I would feel that, because they are duly licensed, many of our fellow teachers are prepared to deliver what is expected of them. But there are multiple factors that influence the extent of commitment and competence that our fellow teachers would have, 

San Antonio said. 

The literature is very clear that this is not a very simple concern. There are many factors that influence these things,

he added. 

San Antonio believes that colleges and universities give their best to train the future teachers and the same time DepEd has set requirements and guidelines in assessing the quality and performance of future teachers. 

He said that teachers’ education and training is only one aspect of the education system in the country. 

The Senate committee on basic education, arts and culture, the committee on higher and the technical and vocational education were discussing measures to strengthen the Teacher Education Council, a step forward to improve the quality of teachers and school leaders in the country and DepEd also expressed its support of the measure.