RECENT TRENDS AND ISSUES IN SCIENCE EDUCATION IN THE

PHILIPPINES- LACK OF QUALIFIED TEACHERS

FAITH RACHEL CUEVAS INSOY

MARCH 2018
 RECENT TRENDS AND ISSUES IN SCIENCE EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES
SHORTAGE AND LACK OF QUALIFIED TEACHERS - SCIENCE

Philippines is experiencing a crisis in education. Among the host of education issues

impacting the state, a massive teacher shortage and lack of qualified teacher is

crippling Philippines’s ability to provide a well-trained teacher in every classroom

and a quality education for every student. This shortage and lackness is particularly

devastating to rural and urban schools. Because of a toxic education climate, rural

districts are losing veteran teachers to retirement, other professions, and bordering

states. These districts are also losing potential new teachers to urban and suburban

school districts and other states, leaving rural schools with unfilled positions or

individuals with non-teaching backgrounds. To make matters worse, declining

numbers of individuals in teacher certification programs and increasing teacher

demand from higher student enrolment ensure that this teacher shortage will

continue to grow for the next five years or longer. Many employers say they can’t

find skilled and with the right career training. Meanwhile, high schools are cutting

career and others courses in relation with Science and Technology because they can’t

find qualified teachers.

In Philippines, learning in science, more than in any other subject, is considered to

be a prerequisite for modernization and national development. Thus, over the past
decades, which have been characterized by movements towards industrialization and

accelerated economic development, science education has been at the fore-of

curriculum reform movements.

During the early years the reforms in science education emphasized science for the

development of scientific and technical manpower, since there were acute shortages

of trained manpower in these fields. Rigorous scientific training was emphasized

during those years, stressing knowledge in the traditional scientific disciplines and

an academic approach to learning. During more recent years, science education in

Philippines, once again following cues coming out has become much more process

or discovery oriented, but, in addition, has begun to lay much more importance on

relevance ta local needs and conditions as well as egalitarian issues.

Many factors can be source of bewilderment ta the teacher in the field, but one main

factor is the Teacher Training Support especially considering that very few of the

practicing science teachers were actually trained in science in the first place. Thus

most part of the country have designed in service teacher training courses to provide

science teachers with special support. In addition, some areas have established

teacher science centers serving a cluster of schools, others have produced elaborate

training packages and still others have begun to provide special bulletins. Besides
innovations in in-service training, there have also been some interesting efforts to

upgrade and update pre-service training at teacher training institutions.

Based on the article I’ve read one of the countries in Southeast Asia namely the

Indonesia provides some good examples of innovative in-service teacher training for

science teachers.' In their secondary science program they have instituted an "in

service-on service" approach, which consists of cycles in which teachers came to the

center to learn new approaches and prepare new lessons, return to their classrooms

where they apply their new skills under observation, and then came back to the center

again for feedback and a new round of lessons. This program also provides a local

science center where teachers from a cluster of schools can receive guidance and

reinforcement.

Many basic questions remain unanswered about the qualification and effectiveness

of teaching skill. Despite claims about the importance of being qualified for

workplace success. Teachers face constraints in incorporating effectiveness and

teaching skills into Science and other subject matter instruction, including their own

lack of knowledge as to how to go about it or school policies that dictate curriculum

content. However, many constraints are amenable to intervention. And while every

attempt to incorporate skills in teaching into classroom instruction will be faced with

a unique set of barriers, the nature of the subject domain itself.