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Teaching is both a profession and a vocation and
should be able to form the hearts and minds of students.
Teachers should live what they teach and need to have the requisite
values and attitudes to serve as role models to students. The Heart
of Education is the Education of the Heart,” is the banner of Rep.
Mariano Piamonte Jr, the A Teacher party-list representative. A
Teacher is a non-profit, national, professional organization which
envisions to be the voice of teachers and other school personnel on
issues affecting their professional and personal growth and serves
as a vehicle for transformative education for national development.
Two weeks ago, I had a very long conversation with him on their
advocacies.
Given the unique opportunity to
be a sectoral representative in Congress, he is strongly advocating
quality education. Looking at our situation where teachers leave the
country to become domestic helpers, caregivers and teachers in the
United States, A Teacher’s legislative agenda supports laws that
will help promote the development and welfare of teachers (both
public and private schools) and other school personnel. Examples of
these are scholarships, tax incentives and health benefits for
teachers and school staff. Salary is the main issue as a big number
of teachers receive only minimum wages with some receiving below
minimum wages. He mentions that many teachers cannot even send their
children to the schools where they teach.
With regard to further improving
the quality of education, he says that the assessment of Philippine
education, curricular reforms, faculty development and educational
policy research are of prime importance. Quality of education refers
to the presence of competent and dedicated teachers, availability of
instructional materials and conduciveness of the learning
environment. Ideally, the classroom ratio to students is 1:25 but we
all know that the number of students, especially in public schools,
swells to 60 to 80 with three shifts per day in some areas. With
regard to teachers, Rep. Piamonte states that this is where the
heart and commitment come in. He says that our teachers should be
able to impart both secular and spiritual values to their students.
Thus, the basic values of passion for excellence, love of labor,
observance of cleanliness, concern for the environment and service
to fellowmen should be and can be integrated across subjects of
schoolchildren starting at the elementary level. But he emphasized
that a teacher should also have these values first. He then talks
about the importance of preservice training and in-service training
to reinforce both value formation and skills development.
He mentions that the current
National Service Training Program (NSTP) is a very good vehicle to
develop social awareness among students as this provides avenues for
them to help or contribute to the community. He relates that
technical and vocational skills training should also be given
importance, particularly for students who are inclined to go into
these fields. As we are all aware of, taking a vocational or
technical course raises eyebrows as there is a perception that it is
second to academic courses. Part of curriculum review is the medium
of instruction. He believes that from Grades 1 and 2, subjects
should be multi-lingual, meaning that subjects should be taught in
the students’ lingua franca with English and Filipino as subjects.
Upon reaching Grade 3, English should be the medium of instruction,
except in the Filipino-language subject.
He emphasized the complementary
role of private schools with public education, thus, he is looking
at government assistance like grants, subsidies and soft loans to
private schools for buildings and facilities improvement,
acquisition of instructional technology such as computers and
incentives to private schools offering short-term and ladderized
technical and vocational courses. He will also look into educational
laws and propose necessary amendments to make them more relevant to
our situation.
After our lengthy conversation, I
recalled my favorite teachers who taught me the basic values of
honesty, love of country and love of God. They taught me well.
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