Educational Research for Policy and Practice (2005) 4: 129144

DOI 10.1007/s10671-005-3360-7

Springer 2005

Contextual Realities of Teacher Education in the Philippines

Editha Agarao-Fernandez and Allan B. de Guzman
Centre for Education Research and Development,
University of Santo Tomas, 1008 Manila, Philippines
E-mail: abdeguzman@mnl.ust.edu.ph

Abstract
Teaching might not be the most popular profession in the world but it is undoubtedly
the most populated. There are indeed some 57 million teachers in the world, about
two thirds of whom work in the developing world. Over the years, the teacher and
the teaching profession in the Philippines have been confronted by various issues and
concerns that are directly or indirectly affecting them. The dynamics of the profession
offers a fertile ground for debates and discussions. This paper presents a panoramic
view of teacher education in the Philippines in the light of the following contextual
variables: milieu, matter, materials, method and mastery.
Key Words: contextual variables, laboratory schools, Licensure Examinations for Teachers (LET), teacher education, teacher education curriculum, teaching environment

Introduction
There have been urgent calls and proposals for a re-thinking, re-engineering,
re-designing, re-inventing, and re-structuring of education to adapt to
emerging needs as well as a re-denition and re-conceptualization of
teacher education in the light of all the challenges and opportunities in the
eld of education.
In facing the challenges of the economic downturn in the Asia-Pacic
region since 1997, the rapid international rise of knowledge-driven economies and the drastic impacts of information technology and globalization,
numerous educational reforms and school re-structuring movements have
been initiated and implemented to pursue effective education in the region
and other parts of the world (Cheng, 1999; Cheng & Townsend, 2000 as
cited by Cheng, Ng, & Mok, 2002). In the process, policy makers and educators have to consider seriously how to change their schools, reform the
curriculum and pedagogy and prepare the young to more effective coping
with challenges in the new era (Dalin & Rust, 1996; Gardner, 1999).

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EDITHA AGARAO-FERNANDEZ AND ALLAN B. DE GUZMAN

However, responding to the challenges of the new millennium, education systems in the Asia-Pacic region, namely: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New
Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand,
United States including the Philippines, function in a turbulent context,
characterized by growing uncertainties and ambiguities. Most policy makers and educators are confused by numerous novel but conicting ideas
and inevitably lose their direction in efforts against mediocrity. It is, therefore, not a surprise that most of their reform efforts have become reactive,
piecemeal, fragmented or ineffective, notwithstanding their goodwill, hard
work, and substantial investment.
Historically, teacher education in the Philippines had dramatically
changed in goals, focus and methodology whenever a new conqueror forcibly
took control of the country. Disparities in values, orientations and philosophies of the different colonial rulers made an impact on the Filipinos, more
importantly, on the educational system, and eventually, on the quality of life
in the country. Undoubtedly, the dynamics of teacher education the country
has created a wide spectrum of platforms of trends, problems and issues.
This paper is an attempt to present a panoramic view of the dynamics of teacher education in the Philippines given a wide range of contextual realities with a view to identifying implications to a more responsive
teacher preparation platform.

The Landscape of Teacher Education in the Philippines

The Philippines has a general education cycle of only 10 years (6 years elementary and 4 years secondary) while most other countries had 11- or 12year cycles. In contrast, elementary education teachers in the Philippines
have more years of schooling and preparation compared to counterparts
in other countries, whereas, most teachers elsewhere have only a year or
two of preparation after secondary schooling. Teachers in the Philippines,
in general have to complete a four-year college degree in education, and in
addition, hurdle a difcult national licensure examination.
To gain a wider perspective of teacher education in the Philippines,
one has to take into consideration the school education system in the
country. In the current school year, there are 41,688 elementary schools,
8091 secondary schools, and 1735 colleges and universities, with about
1983 elementary teacher institutions and 1734 secondary teacher institutions. The enrollment in public and private schools is 12,982,349 in elementary, 6,270,208 in secondary and 2,426,976 in college. The teaching
force is about 457,767, employed in the public schools (337,082 teachers in
elementary, and 120,685 in high school) and 70,066 in private schools (for

TEACHER EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES

131

SY 20002001 since there were no available data for SY 20012002 and SY

20022003) (Department of Education, n.d.; General, 2004).
In 1997, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) reported that
there were 815 teacher education institutions (TEIs) in the Philippines.
To cater to the training needs of such a massive number of teachers
through pre-service and in-service training in the Philippines is indeed
a mind-boggling task. This is currently being accomplished by approximately 815 teacher education institutions offering various types of teacher
education programs, with each region in the country having the least 15
TEIs. Approximately 85% of the institutions are private, and the rest,
state-supported (Savellano, 1999).
By and large, the overall operation of teacher education in the country
may be well-understood in the light of contextual realities, namely: milieu,
matter, materials, method, and mastery (see Table I).
Teacher Education Milieu
The nancial situation of the education sector has made teaching an unattractive profession. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (as
cited by Bautista, 2003) reported that teaching lured only the lower third
of graduating students, and worse, those who are least competent. Not too
many individuals are willing to take over from the 126,900 teachers who
are due to retire in the next few years. A public school teachers maximum
salary is P10,000. This, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), is short of the P16,710 needed for the average family to survive. Teachers are not only hard put to meet their basic
family needs, but are oftentimes also forced to buy instructional materials.

Table I
Contextual realities of teacher education in the Philippines.
Contextual Variables Description
Milieu
Matter
Materials
Method
Mastery

Refers to the teaching environment as dened by the

socio-demographic characteristics of public school teachers
Refers to the teacher education curriculum
Refer to the quality of input variable in teacher education,
that is, the students
Refers to the transitional program provided to would be teachers,
that is, the practicum opportunities
Refers to students performance in state-administered Licensure
Examinations for Teachers (LET) through the years

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EDITHA AGARAO-FERNANDEZ AND ALLAN B. DE GUZMAN

Teachers are also forced to spend for their re-training since DepEd cannot
often provide this for free. As a result, they usually go without retraining.
When this happens, their skills and knowledge become obsolete. Bautista
further revealed that many of them have not passed the licensure examination for teachers and earn their civil service eligibility merely through longevity (teaching for more than 10 years).
Conditions in the work environment of the teachers are not conducive
to their professional growth. Library resources are scant or not available
in 85% of the elementary and secondary schools; the weekly workload of
a typical teacher runs to 20 hours actual teaching; 15 hours of lesson planning, grading, and preparation of audio-visual materials; at least 10 hours
of other assignments. Teachers are thus rendering more than the 40 hours
per week requirement of the Civil Service (TEC, 1998).
Most teachers are computer-illiterate and are strangers to Internet. The
Master Plan for Teacher Education (19982008) reported that modern
technology is utilized only in TEIs located in the urban centers. Facilities
like overhead projectors and computers are not available in eight (8) out
of every ten (10) teacher education institutions. Library resources are nil,
scant and obsolete such that the students have to rely mainly on the handouts and lecture notes of their teachers.
According to the 1998 Philippines Education Sector Study (PESS), there
is a need to begin a massive program of improving transmission/reception
and establishing internet access for the higher education community. The
internet offers the means to receive high quality higher education in remote
locations. The internet seems ideally suited for the purpose because many
of the teaching staff must continue to teach and cannot afford to leave the
work site for external training. An added bonus of internet communications is that the Philippines can leapfrog the need to build library acquisitions through costly traditional means. This inservice upgrading should be
complemented by programs to improve teaching skills.
Government allocation of money for the education of the Filipino people can be said to be the root of the problem. The United Nations Educational Scientic and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said the Philippines
spends less than 1/11 and 1/8 of what Singapore and Thailand, respectively,
spend for education. UNESCO has urged countries to set six (6) percent
of their gross national product for education, but the Philippines allots less
than that. Adopting a low estimate for the GNP this year at P4.6 trillion,
the ideal education budget should be P280 billion.
An inadequate budget has been allotted to the education sector at a
time when the DepEd needs P64.3 billion to make up for its shortage in
school facilities. DepEd said it needs P18.1 billion to adjust its personnels salary to current cost of living and an additional P18.7 billion for
its maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE). The Department

TEACHER EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES

133

also needs to hire 49,212 new teachers, build 39,383 new classrooms and
buy 4,125,413 chairs and 9,880,000 textbooks. However, only 10,000 additional teachers have been factored in the proposed budget of P110.5 billion
for School Year 20042005 (see Table II). An amount of P3 billion is earmarked for the construction of new classrooms, and P600 million, for the
maintenance expenses of public and secondary schools. With a population
growth of 2.36% yearly, these shortages are expected to rise.
Public primary and secondary schools have the biggest share of the education budget, while the State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) have the fth
highest allocation. The budget for higher and basic education was increased
from P3.1 billion in scal year 2003 to P3.2 billion for scal year 2004.
According to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), allocation must support the thrust of the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plans objective of poverty reduction within the decade. In view
of this, the education budget is biased towards basic education and the
improvement of access and equity.
Of the education sectors 2003 budget, the Department of Education
(DepEd) received P106.5 billion, SUCs got P16.8 billion, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) P800 million and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), P2.5billion. TESDA and
CHED are the departments that supervise vocational schools and higher
education institutions.
Teacher Education Matter
In the new millennium, one of the core issues in ongoing worldwide educational reform is the development of a highly qualied and committed
teaching force (Cheng, Chow, & Tsui, 2001 as cited in Cheng & Chow,
2002). In the reform process, whether or not we can enhance the needed
teaching force, depends very much on the effectiveness of the institutions
of education in their delivery of education to pre- and in-service teachers.
The maladjustment of teachers to the changes in students and in society is largely due to the quality of the pre- and/or in-service teacher education and training. The curriculum of pre-service teacher education has
few mechanisms for prospective teachers to prepare themselves for acquiring core competence required in the changing school setting and to reect
on their professional role.
According to the Teacher Education Council (1998), of the 815 TEIs,
only 228 have fully complied with the minimum standards of CHED for
Teacher Education and have been granted recognition, and only 96 have
attained Levels II and III accredited status with the Federation of Accrediting Associations of the Philippines (FAAP) (See Figure 1).

General
approp. Act
2003
106.5
16.8
2.5
0.8
2.7
129.3
575.3
22.5

Actual

2002
103.2
16.8
2.2
0.8
2.4
125.4
553.2
22.7

Source: Department of Budget and Management.

DepEd
SUCs
TESDA
CHED
Others
Total educ. budget
Total net budget
% of educ.
to total budget

Dept. /
Agencies

Table II
Education budget, 20022004 (in billion pesos).

2004
110.5
16.8
2.5
0.9
2.7
133.4
587.8
22.7

Proposed

2002
82.3
13.4
1.8
0.6
1.9
100

% Share in
total budget
2003
82.4
13
1.9
0.6
2.1
100

% Share in
total budget
2004
82.8
12.6
1.9
0.7
2
100

% Share in
total budget

20022003
3.2
0
13.6
0
12.5
3.1

Growth rate

20032004
3.8
0
0
12.5
0
3.2

Growth rate

134
EDITHA AGARAO-FERNANDEZ AND ALLAN B. DE GUZMAN

TEACHER EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES

135

The 1997 Teacher Education curricula in both BEED and BSEd programs (see Figure 2) apparently emphasize general education (50%) as a
compensatory measure for the short basic education continuum of the Philippine educational system. Consequently, according to the Teacher Education Council (1998) teacher education graduates are generally perceived to
be weak in content. Improving teacher effectiveness remains a vital step to
improved efciency.
In the year 2004, the Commission on Higher Education through Memorandum Order No. 30 adopted and promulgated its revised polices and
standards for undergraduate teacher education curriculum. This curriculum
emphasizes the interweaving of foundational, theoretical, methodological,
and experiential knowledge in the various experiences in the curriculum.
Table III summarizes the distribution of courses.
Teacher Education Materials
During the latter part of the 70s, enrollment in teacher education dropped
to about 5% of the total tertiary level enrollment. The sharp decline in
teacher education enrollment during the 70s and 80s may be ascribed to

60%

60%
50%
40%

28%

30%
20%

12%

10%
0%
Deficient

Granted
LevelsII and
Government
III
Recognition

Figure 1. Status of TEIs in the Philippines.

BEED
50%

BEED

50%

15%
35%

General Education
Concentration
Professional Education

20%

30%

General Education
Concentration
Professional Education

Figure 2. Distribution of units in teacher education curricula.

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EDITHA AGARAO-FERNANDEZ AND ALLAN B. DE GUZMAN

Table III
The new teacher education curriculum outline.
Curricular Components

Bachelor in Elementary
Education (BEEd)

Bachelor in Secondary
Education (BSEd)

General education courses

Professional educational courses
Theory/concept courses
Methods/strategies courses
Field study courses
Special topics courses
Specialization/content courses
Total Units

63
54
12
27
12
3
57
174

63
51
12
24
12
3
60
174

the low salary, and consequently low prestige accorded to elementary and
secondary school teachers. Moreover, teacher education after the 1960s created a negative image as the easiest course, the dumping ground for those
who could not make it to the profession. (EDCOM Report, Area Report,
Education and Manpower, 1991).
Increase in teacher education enrolment in the 90s could be the reason
of a reported shortage of teachers at the basic education levels and the relatively less stringent admission requirements as well as higher probability
of completing a college diploma, compared to other degree programs.
In her paper entitled Teacher Education: Its Implications to Basic Education, Ibe (1991) posited that Teacher Education in this country has been
the easiest and most available tertiary program. Practically, all tertiary level
institutions offer a Teacher Education Program. It is also the least expensive because it charges low tuition fees.
According to CHED (1997), approximately 25% of the high school
seniors who passed the National Secondary Achievement Test (NSAT)
opted for teacher education as a career path. Once taken in by a TEI, only
71% of the incoming freshmen survive to complete their degrees, indicating
that 29% or close to a third of them drop out from their teacher education programs. Two thirds of the enrollees in teacher education are in the
BEEd program while the remaining one-third goes to the BSEd or BSIEd
programs. Trends indicated a shift in the pattern of preference from BEEd
to BSEd during the early part of the 1990s. In the latter case, however, the
trend is reversed with higher enrollment in BEEd. Among those who opted
for a BSEd degree, 1.5% took Science and Mathematics as major elds.
These were the students who belonged to the upper 15% of the teacher
education enrollees. The prole of teacher education dropouts showed that

TEACHER EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES

137

Table IV
Five-Year enrollment and retention rate in (private and public) TEIs.
19971998
19981999
19992000
20002001
20012002
Private Public Private Public Private Public Private Public Private Public
Enrollment

225,087 182,879 238,457 208,726 242,591 226,428 227,756 211,793

407,966
447,183
469,019
439, 549
Retention 23,793 20,166 25,885 25,941 30,806 29,609 37,230 34,119

43,959
51,826
60,415
71,349

Higher Education Statistical Bulletin: AY 19981999 to 20012002.

they have comparable ability levels with those who stayed on to complete
their degrees. The incidence of dropouts is mainly attributed to the lack
of initial preference for teacher education (teaching being the last career
option) and economic reasons. The same tendency is depicted in Table
IV, showing trends in enrollment and retention in both private and public
teacher education institutions in the country.
In the Philippines, the research on the quality of students who enroll
in Teacher Education courses revealed some alarming truths: the teaching profession has never attracted the best and brightest graduates in high
school. Those who go into the teaching profession are at the bottom
half of the high school graduates.(Gonzales & Sibayan, 1988; Ibe, 1991).
In many instances, high school graduates take Teacher Education mainly
because it is not very selective in regard to mental ability. Taken as a case
study, Figure 3 shows the Mean IQ Scores of students enrolling in one of
the Teacher Education Institutions in the country over a period of 3 years.
As indicated in the data, teacher education attracts the not so intellectually able high school graduates. Apparently, the same data as supported by
previous research undertakings also hold true for other teacher education
institutions in the country.
The in Figure 3 supported the conclusion made by the Holmes Group
(Tomorrows Teachers, p. 6 as cited in Laird, 1988) that Teacher education has long been intellectually weak, which further eroded the prestige of
an already poorly esteemed profession, and encouraged many inadequately
prepared people to enter teaching.
The recruitment and retention of more academically talented students
will continue to be an issue unless improvement in work conditions and
reward systems for teachers are implemented effectively.
Article XVI Section V of the 1987 Philippine Constitution states that,
The state shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education and ensure
that teaching will attract and retain its rightful share of the best talents

EDITHA AGARAO-FERNANDEZ AND ALLAN B. DE GUZMAN

IQ Scores

138

102
101
100
99
98
97
96
95
94
2002-03

2003-04
2004-05
Academic Year
Elementary Secondary

Figure 3. A case of the Mean IQ scores of students in a TEI.

through adequate remuneration and other means of job satisfaction and fulllment.
Teacher Education Method
In a study conducted by Ibe (1991), it was discovered that many existing
TEIs have no laboratory schools, hence, they do not offer a real practicum
program, or if they have a practice teaching course, it is only like a lecture
course. Many TEIs integrate methods and strategies with content specialization courses and offer only a general course on instructional planning
and procedures in which teachers-to-be, representing all the specializations,
enroll. Or if laboratory schools do exist, the survey conducted by Collaborative Research on Laboratory Schools (CORELS) entitled Redenition
of Laboratory Schools as Support Structures for Teacher Education Programs revealed that laboratory schools, by and large, exist primarily and
solely only for student teaching, with relatively low ratings obtained for
how well other practices and functions a laboratory school, by its nature,
should be performing.
This gloomy scenario defeats the primary aim of teacher education programs which is to give students rich opportunities to experience, to the
greatest extent possible, the real world of the teacher. Through eld experiences and carefully structured experiential activities, pre-service teachers
are given the necessary exposure to various aspects of teaching. Observing,
tutoring, instructing small groups, analyzing video cases, operating instructional media, performing student teaching, and completing various noninstructional tasks are among the most common experiential tasks (Parkay
& Stanford, 1998).

TEACHER EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES

139

Student teaching may still be considered a major function of a laboratory school but CORELS recommended that it should also be a site for
the student teachers to see and experience research in action, the evolution and testing of innovations, an available and fertile eld for knowledge
and product generation and as a center for teaching and learning. Following are the re-dened roles of Laboratory schools, as recommended by the
CORELS (see Figure 4):

Demonstration sites for testing and implementing new instructional

methodologies.

Research sites for determining the effectiveness of intervention programs

in education not only at the classroom level but also school level.
Observation sites for studying the Filipino childrens learning systems.
Tryout sites for curricular innovations.
Centers for materials development.
Professional development centers for teachers in the eld.

These roles, if assumed by laboratory schools, can develop the creative, critical, exible, informed and productive teacher, the qualities which
should characterize graduates of teacher education programs.

Demo
Sites

Research
Sites

Tryout Sites

Redefined
Roles of
Laboratory
Schools
Observation
Sites

Professional
Dev't.
Sites

Center for
Materials
Development

Figure 4. Redened roles of laboratory schools.

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EDITHA AGARAO-FERNANDEZ AND ALLAN B. DE GUZMAN

This recommendation was based mainly on two (2) major ndings of

the study: (1) the survey has indeed shown that laboratory schools, by and
large, exist primarily and solely only for student teaching, with relatively
low ratings obtained for how well other practices and functions a laboratory school, by its nature, should be performing, and (2) the ndings of the
case studies of best practices in laboratory schools evidently illustrate the
fact that a laboratory school can perform other signicant functions that
can undoubtedly support the goals of teacher education programs, in general, and enhance teaching programs in particular.
Teacher Education Institutions undoubtedly need much improvement
and upgrading with regard to faculty, nancial, physical and library
resources. Coping with resource constraints will continue to be a challenge
in our commitment to the improvement of the quality of education.
Teacher Education Mastery
A major nding of EDCOM is the teachers ill-preparedness in handling
his/her job due to several factors, one of which is the incongruence of
the teacher education curriculum with requirements specied in the LET
(BEEd: 40% general education; 60% professional education and for BSEd:
20% general education; 40% professional education; 40% specialization)
which has resulted in the continually dismal performance of education students in LET. Data show that since the implementation of LET in 1996
(see Table V), teacher performance has not indicated any improvement.
More over, TEC observed that the Teacher Professionalization Law
(R. A. 7836) ironically watered down emphasis on the professional component of teacher education by reducing the number of units required for

Table V
Passing rate: LET from 1996 to 2004.
Year

Number of Examinees

Passing rate

1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004

97,507
101,348
115,499
123,025
123,570
139,181
141,732
144,340
119,121

26,813
26,264
33,156
41,614
44,114
47,733
50,832
37,880
32,157

(27.50%)
(25.91%)
(28.71%)
(33.83%)
(35.70%)
(34.30%)
(35.86%)
(26.24%)
(27.00%)

TEACHER EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES

141

non-education degree holders to qualify for the Licensure Examination for

Teachers (LET). Before the passage of the law, the Civil Service Commission required 18 units of education, but R. A. 7836 requires only 10 units,
despite the strong objection of the Philippine Association for Teacher Education (PAFTE) during the Congressional hearings on the law.
The foregoing discussion of the contextual realities of teacher education
in the country poses a number of substantial implications to basic education, expanding roles of teacher education institutions, and collaboration,
networking and partnerships.

Implications
Basic Education
The term basic education refers to compulsory schooling in elementary
and high school, the two levels addressed specically by preservice Teacher
Education programs. Ibe (1991) pointed out that the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) is the only assessment /indicator of the quality of
such programs.
The negative impact of basic education is rooted in the teacher training policy of the country and the status of the teaching profession (Magpantay, 1995). To be able to teach in high schools, teachers must have a
BSE degree with a major and minor eld. This degree program is short
in content and heavy in teaching methodology. In the end, teachers are
knowledgeable in the standard way of teaching but do not know what to
teach, and worse, students who enroll in education colleges are generally
not very creative and imaginative due to the low status afforded to the profession. In any family, the intelligent among the children are encouraged
to take medicine and law, and if mathematically inclined, engineering. The
least academically capable are asked to take BSE or BSEE programs. It is
no wonder that the science and math education in the primary and secondary levels are in bad shape. Students are taught by the least academically inclined individuals who went through a program that emphasizes
form more than content.
Expanding Role of TEIs
Historically, education courses have drawn their clientele almost exclusively
from education students. At present however, one can see that they are
appealing to more non-education students and graduates. The lack of education students trained to become efcient and effective teachers have given
way to socialized teacher education as UNESCO calls it. The study

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EDITHA AGARAO-FERNANDEZ AND ALLAN B. DE GUZMAN

conducted by Promkasetrin (1990), stated that: Universities are allowed to

provide special one-year or half-year teacher education courses for university students and other adults who have not earned units in the required
professional courses, but with opportunities to obtain teaching certicates.
Collaboration, Networking and Partnerships
Current developments in the country and elsewhere highlight the reality
that there are increasingly fewer reasons and justications for individual
teacher education institutions to operate in isolation. If teacher education
institutions, were to survive and remain relevant, Lagrada (2003) suggests
that they relate rather than isolate, associate rather than compete and reformulate and re-invigorate, otherwise they become obsolete, and build proverbial bridges to other institutions or organizations rather than erect walls
of isolation.
Republic Act 7784 mandates the establishment of Centers of Excellence to network with regional/ provincial teacher education institutions,
basic education schools, and school divisions in the region. The Centers
of Excellence shall be provided with appropriations to further strengthen
their capabilities to service their respective areas. Hopefully, this could produce the desired ripple effects of an excellent institution (Teacher Education Council, 1998).
Furthermore, teacher education universities can have partnerships with
other universities to provide support in higher level subject knowledge for
teacher education programs. Given the strong demands for new professional competencies in the new paradigm of education, Cheng and Chow
(2002) suggested that universities offering teacher education should be the
major institutions with the mandate to develop new professional competencies and provide appropriate professional programs for teachers to enhance
the capability to play a new role, shifted from delivering knowledge to
facilitating lifelong learning and intelligence development.
According to Lagrada, while there is no available national data which
show that institutions relate or work with one another in their teacher education programs, there are isolated reports of some forms of partnership or
linkages among a few of them involving the offering of degree programs.
Some partnerships are short-term and activity specic such as inviting faculty members from one institution to discuss modules on teaching mathematics, science, and other subjects. Teacher education institutions have
talked about consortia, twinning, sharing of resources, faculty exchanges,
student exchanges, collaborative researches, and other forms of linkages,
all of which refer to conscious efforts and attempts that have been made
to work together and support one another towards the realization of their
common mission as teacher education institutions.

TEACHER EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES

143

Gonzalez (2000) for his part, also suggested that teacher education institutions need to forge working partnerships with school districts and school
divisions not only because these schools serve as places for off-campus
assignment of studentteachers, but more importantly, they are the prospective employers of teacher education graduates. Gonzalez emphasized
that working together with school districts and school divisions will help
considerably in strengthening teacher competencies at the basic education
level supporting recommendation number 6 of PCER (this proposal envisions a quintessential teacher imbued with the passion for academic excellence, highest standards of values and virtues, and at the same time keeping
abreast with global developments).
Cogan (2002) shared that successful programs in the future will be
those that partner with schools, with foundational and disciplined based
departments in their universities, teacher unions, policy-makers, government licensing agencies, and with those in the local communities served by
the schools.
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