Professionalization of Teaching

Jhaye Anne Gizelle D. Almaiz

BSED-ENGLISH II
 INTRODUCTION
• On January 1, 1977, Presidential Decree 1006,
entitled "Providing for the Professionalization
of Teachers, regulating their practice in the
Philippines, otherwise known as the Decree
Professionalizing Teaching was proclaimed.
With this presidential proclaimation, teaching
became professionalized in the Philippines.
The proclaimation of PD 1006 was premised
on the following:
1. "The institutions of the country have relied
upon... teachers whose direct and continuing
interaction with the young people and the
children make them potent forces for the
development of proper attitudes among the
citizenry;
2. There is a tremendous growth of the teaching
population, comprising in the civil service sector
alone more than 300,000 teachers deployed all
over the country;
3. To insure that in the immediacy and urgency
of teacher recruitment, qualitative requirements
are not overlooked, it has become necessary to
regulate the teaching profession.
4. Teaching requires a numbet of years of
collegiate study, it is the only course that is not
yet considered a profession; and
5. In recognition of the vital role of teachers in
nation-building and as an incentive to raise the
morale of teachers, it is imperative that they be
considered as professionals and teaching be
recognized as a profession.
• PD 1006 declared a policy that teacher
education be of the highest quality, and
strongly oriented to Philippine conditions and
to the needs and aspirations of the Filipino
people. Along with the policy that teacher
education be of the highest quality, the Civil
Service Commission and the Department of
Education and Cultire jointly gave examination
for teachers. Passers in the teachers'
examination were qualified for registration as
professional teachers and were given the
Professional Teacher Certificate.
• PD 1006 made a teacher's license a
requirement for teaching, The decree states:
"Three years after the effectivity of this
decree, no person shall engage in traching
and/or act as a teacher as defined in this
decree, whether in the public or private
elementary or secondary school, unless he is
holder of a Professional Teacher Certificate or
is considered a Professional Teacher under this
decree".
• The question raised was, was the Professional
Teacher Certificate really made a requirement
for entry into the teaching profession, three
years after 1977?
• Despite the professionalization of teaching in
1977 by virtue of PD 1006, the quality of
rducation in the country appeared not to have
improved. The findings of the 1991
Congressional Commission affirmed the
continuously deteriorating quality of
education in the country. The Congressional
Commission to Review and Assess Philippine
Education (EDCOM) came out with the finding
that the quality of Philippine education is
declining and that teachers are at heart of the
problem. The EDCOM found, among others,
that:
• teachers are poorly trained;
• there is low quality of sudents enrolled in the
teacher training;
• teaching is perceived as a poorly esteemed
profession
• These show that teaching does not attract the
best as mandated in the Philippine
Constitution that "teaching will attract and
retain its rightful share of the best available
talents through adequate renumeration and
other means of job satisfaction and fullfilment
(Article XIV, Section 4 (5).
• In 1994 another law on teachers'
professionalization namely Republic Act No.
7836 known as the Philippine Teachers
Professionalization Act of 1994 was enacted.
Like PD 1006, this law recognized the vital role
of teachers in nation-building.
• The act created the Board for Professional
Teachers, a collegial body under the general
supervision and administrative control of the
Professional Regulation Commission, that
gives the Licensure Examination for Teachers
(LET). Passers of the LET are granted license to
teach.
• To support further the move to get "the best
and the brightest" for the teaching profession,
some significant provisions of R.A. 7836 were
amended by R.A 9293.
• END