Teacher council eyeing admission policy for incoming education students

The Teacher Education Council (TEC) is studying the implementation of an admission policy that will serve as a "qualifier" for incoming education students, an official said Thursday.

TEC Executive Director Runvi Manguerra said at a Senate hearing that they have completed a draft but are still firming up the policy. He said they will still have to consult the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

He made the statement when Senator Sherwin Gatchalian asked him for recommendations to improve the passing rate of the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) which he said has been going down. 

"Presently the TEC embarked on a project on an admission policy for incoming education students," Manguerra said.

He answered in the affirmative when Gatchalian asked him whether the TEC is advocating for a "separate qualifier" for education students.

The TEC official also said they are proposing the creation of an organization that will "develop [the] teaching profession as early as senior high school" and strengthen the "inclination for teacher education."

He added that they would like to add more centers of excellence and development across the regions.

'Not the best and the brightest'

Gatchalian asked Manguerra for solutions after the latter said that the students drawn to education are "not the best and the brightest."

When the senator asked why LET passing rates are going down, Manguerra cited the "very low percentage" of centers of excellence and development among teacher education institutions.

He also cited the "kind of students" admitted into education programs.

"We keep on saying that we have to recruit the best and the brightest among our senior high school students but record shows that those who are attracted to the teacher education institutions are not the best and the brightest. But there are few good students. But I think we really cannot attract the best," Manguerra said.

Earlier this month, an official of the Professional Regulation Commission attributed low LET passing rates to the lack of strict admission rules for students aspiring to be teachers.

"This is the result of open enrollment. There is no selective enrollment for the course, there is no selective retention. They all are enrolled and they all pass. Why? because that is the demand of the parents, the demand of the community and also the need of schools," PRC Board for Professional Teachers chairperson Dr. Rosita Navarro said on October 12.

CHED chairperson Prospero De Vera III disagreed, saying this was an assumption that a student will no longer improve while studying to be a teacher.

"I think if that is our conclusion, then we conclude that universities are not doing anything," he said. — BM, GMA News