PHL should get scientists, engineers as teachers —solon

Government scientists and engineers can be tapped as "adjunct" teachers in science and mathematics to supplement teacher training initiatives nationwide, a senator said Thursday.

 

Senate education committee chairman Edgardo Angara made the suggestion as he noted a decline in the number of graduates from courses in Education Science, Teacher Training, Engineering and Technology over the last decade.

 

“Our attempts to reform and improve the educational system will be for nothing if we fail to equip our teachers with the necessary skills, and if less of our students see teaching as a viable career,” said Angara, who also chairs the Senate Committee on Science and Technology.

 

“We should be biased for boosting our science and technology capability because this will enable us to catch up and become more competitive,” he added.  

 

Presently, he said only 143 graduate scholars from the Department of Science and Technology Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) are available for hiring under the memorandum for School Year 2012-2013, provided that they first passed the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET).

 

“Clearly, there is a need to find other ways of scaling up teacher training and faculty development. We should tap into talent that already exists. Government chemists, biologists, agriculturists, economists and engineers can be given certain incentives and granted some leeway on licensure requirements to become the math and science teachers we need, at least in the interim,” he said.

 

Angara noted the Department of Education (DepEd) is now training 140,000 teachers, including 73,500 in Grade 1 and 70,200 in Grade 7, to teach the new K-12 basic education curriculum.

 

He added some 100,000 more teachers are needed to meet future demand.

 

Also, he said the Department of Education, Philippine Science High School System (PSHSS) and the DOST-SEI had conducted trainings for around 1,500 Grade 7 teachers of English, Science and Mathematics from science high schools nationwide.

 

“Government is doing what it can to fill the gaps in teachers, especially in math and science,” said Angara.

 

He also cited Memorandum No. 55 issued by DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro, prioritizing the hiring of science scholars for math and science teaching positions nationwide. — TJD, GMA News