DEPED official: Teacher factor is crucial in learning

By Gina Dizon

LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET- A good teacher is committed to his/her work.  Where it is needed, he/she goes beyond the required official hours and teaches pupils who are not learning fast. What is important for the teacher is to make the child learn and make him/her comprehend what he /she is reading.   

In the light of the Philippines having got lowest in reading comprehension, and second lowest in math and science in the 2018 international Program for Student Assessment (PISA) among 79 countries, Department of Education Assistant Regional Director Florante Vergara said in an interview that the teacher is crucial in making the learner comprehend what is he/she is reading.

PISA is a worldwide study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development  (OECD) that examines students’ knowledge in reading, mathematics, and science.

In the PISA results, Filipino students obtained a mean score of 340 points in the overall reading literacy significantly lower than the OECD average of 487 points and the lowest among the countries surveyed.

The Philippine’s average performance in the reading assessment was categorized by the OECD to be within Proficiency Level 1a, which means that in general, Filipino students can understand the literal meaning of sentences or short passages, recognize the main theme, and make a single connection between several adjacent pieces of information.

However, majority of the Filipino students, or at least 80 percent, were classified to have a Proficiency Level below Level 2, or those who are unable to identify the main idea in a piece of text of moderate length, and may have difficulty in making comparisons based on single features of text and in making connections between text and outside knowledge.

Vergara relates from experience his teachers in elementary school their  commitment in teaching and making students know and comprehend what he/she is reading.

The teacher’s confidence and being an expert in his/her field takes a teacher to be respected. He/she exudes confidence that even a look in his eyes will let the children get motivated to learn and study. With this, there is no need to physically discipline a child, he said.     

While facilities may can come in handy, the confidence and expert knowledge and skill of the teacher is crucial in making the environment conducive for the learning of the child, Vergara added.

Vergara takes off from the Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers in the Philippines which provides that ‘every teacher shall possess and actualize a full commitment and devotion to duty. The teacher is a facilitator of learning and development of youth.

The first and foremost concern of the teacher is the recognition of the interest and welfare of the students

              “Reading proficiency is essential for a wide variety of human activities - from following instructions in a manual; to finding out the who, what, when, where, and why of an event; to communicating with others for a specific purpose or transaction,” the summary of the PISA 2018 results reads.

Asked on the effect of using mother tongue, Vergara said there must be no problem in mother tongue as it facilitates learning where the teacher translates topics in the dialect for these to be comprehended.

                Asked if the English language is not compromised, Vergara said the English curriculum was used since then. It is up to the teacher to effectively and substantially teach English with the necessary elements of grammar, vocabulary and meaning relayed, he said.

DEPED has this program on every child a reader program (ECARP) that addresses the thrust to make every Filipino child a reader at his/her own level. It is designed to equip elementary pupils with strategic reading and writing skills to make them independent young readers and writers.  It also provides a year-long training for teachers to make them multi-literate and independent problem solvers.

Now, it was calibrated to higher order thinking skills(HOTS) as knowing the causes, effects, application and values of a particular topic or subject, Vergara pointed out.  

Critical thinking is important. It is not only the content that is learned but a more comprehensive way of looking at subjects. The teacher has the duty to make critical thinking happen among learners.

The commitment of the teacher to teach, the necessary methods to use and let students comprehend what they are reading follows in science and math, he added.

Issues surround effective learning from not being realized.

There is this wrong perception in technology. Students just google to get the meaning of a word. There is a need for analysis, application and values incorporated in a word, he said.

Some classrooms accommodate 40-50 students. Obviously, the more students there are in a room, the lesser is the focus on teaching.  Other schools have teachers teaching all subjects in integrated schools due to lack of teachers and classrooms.

In the current K12 curriculum of  DepEd  implemented in 2013 and its first graduates in March 2018 is a tough call to respond on issues of basic education needs such as  classrooms, facilities to include computers and internet connectivity with its  direction towards globalization.

That apart from skilled and knowledgeable teachers who know how to teach and now what has surfaced that basic reading, writing and arithmetic needs attention.  

Another issue that crops up most of the time among teachers is their overworked conditions due to stressful compliance to requirements including filling up of administrative documents.

In the light of these issues and immediately following from the PISA results, the DepEd came up with a four program objective to push for a quality basic education nationwide through its “Sulong EduKalidad” project.

The program identified four key areas namely the review and updating of K to 12; improvement of learning facilities; ‘upskilling’ and ‘reskilling’ of teachers and school heads through a transformed professional development program; and the engagement of all stakeholders for support and collaboration.

The Education department called on Filipinos to take “active involvement, cooperation, and collaboration in advancing the quality of basic education in the Philippines.”