The Arroyos have proposed the creation of national teacher academies all over the country to train teachers how to teach subjects areas such as math, science and history, which are commonly taught in elementary and secondary schools.
House Bill 3042, also known as the Teaching Profession Act of 2013, mandates the establishment of national teacher academies by qualified recipients which have been awarded grants by the Department of Education on the basis of a competitive bidding process. Each grant authorizes a five-year operation of the national teacher academy, renewable after the period.
Higher education institutions, a private non-profit educational organization or a combination of these two will be eligible to apply for the grants.
The academies will hone teachers’ skills in subject areas such as basic skills and literacy instruction, civics and government, national writing project, mathematics, foreign languages, history, geography and sociology, economics, life sciences, physical sciences, and the arts, including art, music and the performing arts.
Under the proposal, academy staff should be selected from the most accomplished and prominent scholars in the relevant fields of study and in the methodologies.
In the bill’s explanatory note, the Arroyos said that teachers in the Philippines have become demoralized in recent years due to the decline in the quality of the teaching profession.
“The government must not only toil to address the existing and impending teacher shortage in the country, but bring talented professionals into the teaching profession to greatly enhance the quality of our education,” they said.
Aside from hiring qualified instructors and staff for training teachers, HB 3042 also mandates the use of funds under the DepEd grant for national teacher academies for the creation of in-service training programs for teachers and administrators, and for holding at least one three-week-long training at a summer institute each year. — Xianne Arcangel/BM, GMA News
