THE National Educators Academy of the Philippines (NEAP), the professional development arm of the Department of Education (DepEd), vowed to move its "ineffective teacher training program" into an impactful one by putting quality trainers at the helm.
This comes after the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture spearheaded an oversight inquiry into the administration of school-based teacher training programs by NEAP at the 37th meeting of the committee on Monday, February 12, prompted by the alleged dissatisfaction of teachers with their DepEd training and the dismal scores of young Filipino learners in national and international assessments.
Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo, the committee chairman, presided over the hearing into the academy's effectiveness of cascading the programs to upskill teachers.
"[From what we've gathered], the problem is the cascading of how the trainings reach the teachers? What happens [is that] you (NEAP) call the principals and the head teachers, [and] it is only them that are trained, and you just let them train the other teachers," Romulo said.
NEAP Director Jennifer Lopez said the academy remained committed to providing professional development programs to teachers and school leaders, especially with Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte's Matatag agenda.
Lopez said with 59,320 trainers, quality trainers will head NEAP's programs to ensure that inadequate personnel shall no longer be an excuse for the ineffective provision of training and upskilling programs to public school teachers.
"Hopefully, we get higher scores in the next PISA [which is in 2025]. We don't need to master everything. Students just need to know how to read and understand what they read, and math must be age-appropriate," Romulo said.
The 2022 Program for International Student Assessment results, a worldwide study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, showed Filipino learners lagging behind their counterparts in other countries by three to five years, the DepEd said.
In the 2022 assessment of students ages 15, the Philippines ranked 77 out of 81 nations worldwide. The country's results — 355 in math, 347 in reading and 373 in science — were about 120 points below the average.
The NEAP, institutionalized by Republic Act 11713, or "The Excellence in Teacher Education Act," is tasked to provide continuing professional development and training of in-service teachers, school leaders, and other teaching-related personnel in all basic education institutions.
Meanwhile, Education Undersecretary Wilfredo Cabral of the Bureau of Human Resource and Organization Development said, "The mechanism must be fluid and does not result in negative criticisms, [and] nonetheless, bring out the best from the candidates."
During the Development of Assessor's Training Program for School Heads held at the NEAP headquarters in Marikina City from January 29 to February 2, Cabral cited the importance of the program and the developed mechanisms for the career progression of school heads.
"We must come up with an assessment practice that will know which and who are the right school heads [as] derived from a competency-based mechanism," he said.
Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Undersecretary for Finance and Internal Affairs Maria Antonette Velasco-Allones, who was the resource speaker, said assessment precedes improvement and that developmental leadership, stakeholders' support of school programs, and mobilization of community resources are key.
Lopez presented the proposed framework and activities related to the assessment and stressed the importance of integrity in this task.
Attended by selected assistant schools division superintendents, education program supervisors, public schools district supervisors, and school heads of different regions and school division offices, the sessions became an avenue for knowledge exchange, brainstorming, sharing of valuable practices, and policies that need to take into consideration in assessing school heads.
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