How to Elevate the Quality of English Teachers in the Philippines

Many experts talk about equipping students with 21st century skills to prepare for the
changing nature of jobs. However, the 2014 Learning Curve Report said that developing
countries - those in ASEAN - must first focus on teaching basic skills more effectively. And
as the 2012 version of the Report underscores, there is no substitute for having good and
quality teachers.

According to John Dewey, “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s,

we rob them of tomorrow. “ This quote states a very meaningful challenge on the part of
the new breed of mentors in our country. So, it is imperative that teachers of today’s
generation should be equipped with 21st century skills. With the legal basis in the
implementation of K-12 Curriculum, the need for modern skills in teaching should be
enhanced among educators of today.

With the ASEAN integration coming and attracting the investment community’s
attention, how can we Filipinos cope with this challenge? Where and how will we begin?

As seeds are planted in a healthy soil, watered daily and is receiving the ample
amount of the sun’s heat, plus the daily cultivation added with fertilizers, so as the need
of students to acquire good education from good quality teachers in a reasonable
environment. Both will yield good products and both will be assets of the community and
the society as whole. As agents of progress, they will be needing medium to negotiate,
to impart, to suggest, to be heard and understood, to be recognized and eventually be
given the merit they deserve. And this medium is the language.

The Philippines is recognized globally as one of the largest English-speaking nations,

with the majority of its population having at least some degree of fluency in the language.
English has always been one of the country’s official languages, and is spoken by more
than 14 million Filipinos. It is the language of commerce and law, as well as the primary
medium of instruction in education.

Proficiency in the language is also one of the Philippines ‘strengths, which has helped
drive the economy and even made it the top voice outsourcing destination in the world,
surpassing India in 2012. The influx of foreign learners of English is also on the rise due
to the relatively more affordable but quality English as a Second Language (ESL)
programs being offered locally.

However, at a recent round table organized by British Council Philippines, key

stakeholders from the government, academe, private, and non-government sectors
acknowledged that even if the country were doing fine in terms of English competency,
concerns on how much of a competitive advantage is still is here were raised.
 The stakeholders agreed that the country needs to step up its efforts in improving
the teaching and learning of English, developing it as a vital skill of the workforce. This is
an initiative that can potentially strengthen the Philippines‘ distinct advantage in this part
of the world, particularly with the upcoming ASEAN economic integration.

Enhancing the teaching of English in the Philippines presents opportunities for the
country in the area of tourism.

“To maintain the Philippines‘ strength as the major ESL destination, we need to
address the gap in qualified ESL teachers and the issues around ensuring the quality of
ESL schools. This also includes exploring how we can extend incentives to ESL schools
and teachers,“ Renee Marie Reyes, the chief of the ESL Market Development Group under
the Department of Tourism, said at the round table. The DOT is encouraging local ESL
schools to offer structured tour packages to ESL learners, the majority of whom come
from South Korea, China, Russia and Japan, by incorporating English-learning activities
in the travel experience.

Round-table participants from the government sector underscored the need for an
inter-agency government body to regulate and support ESL provision in the country in
order to further capitalize on its economic potential.

Representatives of the academe focused on teacher training and professional

development, highlighting the need for skills in differentiated instruction, materials
development and knowledge sharing.

According to its dean, Rosario Alonzo, the University of the Philippines College of
Education ensures this by emphasizing to its students that English is a skill to be used for
communication. Education students focus on learner-centered teaching, and are taught
to ask learners to do meaningful tasks using English.

“Our future teachers should ensure that English is a means of communication, rather
than a set of facts to be learned,“ Alonzo said. In the same way, the Department of
Education focuses on the needs of learners and ensures that they learn the English
language holistically, as specified under the K-to-12 basic education framework.

There is also a greater imperative to further dwell on the English skills of the labor
force, particularly of those in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector.

“The demand for BPO services from the Philippines requires more than 1.3 million
employees by 2016, which means that 300,000 more new employees need to be hired
by next year, “ said Zoe Diaz de Rivera, master trainer of the IT and Business Process
Association of the Philippines (Ibpap).
 Private-sector representatives suggested corporate social responsibility program to
support teacher development, particularly in English-language proficiency in teaching
other subjects. They also recommended collaboration between the government and the
private sector to address language proficiency in teachers and students in the outlying
communities.

Members of international and development organizations recognize the same gaps

and agreed with the recommendations of the other sectors. In addition, they proposed a
platform for information sharing and communication among stakeholders to avoid
duplicating initiative. These statements were made amid the decline of the quality of
English in the Philippines and the growing numbers of unfilled jobs in various industries
that require certain levels of English communication skills. Ibpap statistics show that
today, only 8-10 persons are hired for every 100 applicants in the IT-BPO sector.

Nicholas Thomas, country director of British Council Philippines, said developing a

wider knowledge of the English language is one of its founding purposes.

“Part of our work is to share best practice in the teaching and learning of English
with partner countries all over the world,“ Thomas said, adding: “English has a distinctive
place in the Philippine education system, and retaining high standard of English is critically
important for the country’s economy and future development. We look forward to working
with partners on more initiatives to support the teaching and learning of English here. “

Embracing ASEAN integration now and even before it existed, English is inevitable.
But the call now for competence of the language use is getting louder as we are also
competing with a larger crowd. Pool of experts from the members of the ASEAN will all
be diving in the Philippines whether we like it or not. So we have to brace ourselves and
prepare not only the students but also teachers in order to yield good harvests that would
cope with the challenge of the ever-growing world.

But how do we boost teacher effectiveness?

Over the last two decades, research on student achievement has pinpointed the
central role of teachers. While other factors- families, peers, neighborhoods- are obviously
elements in student’s learning, it is the school and particularly the teachers and the
administrators who are given the public responsibility for the education of our youth.
There is a general consensus that improving the effectiveness of teachers is the key to
lifting student achievement, although questions remain about how best to do this.

A key element in focusing attention on the importance of teacher effectiveness was

research that took an outcomes-based perspective. By looking at differences in the
growth of student achievement across different teachers instead of concentrating on just
the background and characteristics of teachers, it was possible to identify the true impact
of teachers on students.

This work, now generally called value-added analysis, demonstrated that some
teachers consistently get greater learning gains year after year than other teachers.

Only today, unlike in the 1950s, we have a clear idea of what it takes to improve
achievement. The quality of the teachers in our schools is paramount: no other measured
aspect of schools is nearly as important in determining student achievement. The
initiatives we have emphasized in policy discussions- class size reduction, curriculum
revamping, reorganization of school schedule, investment in technology- all fall far short
of the impact that good teachers can have in the classroom. Moreover, many of these
interventions can be very costly.

Indeed, the magnitude of variation in the quality of teachers, even within each school,
is startling. Teachers who work in a given school, and therefore teach students with
similar demographic characteristics, can be responsible for increases in Math and Reading
Levels that range from a low of one-half year to a high off one and a half years of learning
each academic year.

But while most parents are able to distinguish a good teacher from a bad one, few
have any idea what difference it makes in the lives of their children. And searchers do
not help, tending to talk in terms of standard deviations of achievement and effect sizes,
phrases that simply have no meaning outside of the rarefied world of research.

Virtually everybody interested in improving the performance of schools concentrate

on the importance of teacher quality. Yet policy recommendations related to teacher
quality frequently do not incorporate existing evidence about performance.

If the Philippines has a lot of potential quality teachers, specifically in English, another
question arises: How can we find and keep them for our country? How can we make
them think that settling in our country is a good choice over working abroad which they
commonly label as the greener pasture? How can we raise the status of our own teachers?

This resonates with Senator Sonny Angara’s call for further increases in teachers‘ pay
scales, where after the final tranche of across-the-board government salary increases,
starting rate is around P18,000 (US $ 412) for public school teachers. But even with such
pay jump, many Filipino teachers still remain financially burdened.

Some of our ASEAN neighbors are way ahead of us. The 2013 Global Teachers Status
Index found Singaporean teachers had the highest average salary in the world- close to
US $ 4,000 a month (around US $45,755 a year). In Malaysia, it is around US $ 2,200
and in Indonesia, US $ 1400. These include various perks and performance incentives.
 By raising salaries, the Philippine education system can attract the best and brightest
into teaching careers- an imperative, given that high class-to-teacher ratios persist among
the ongoing roll out of the new K-12 system.

However, high salaries are only one part of the picture. The 2012 Learning Curve
Report suggests that successful school systems are able to give teachers a cultural status
similar to other respected professions, while providing them relevant and continuing
training. These teachers are made to adhere to stringent standards and fulfill high goals,
but are also given enough autonomy to determine how best to go about their jobs. They
must have greater involvement.

Teachers‘ involvement in the school is not limited to classroom instruction only. For
the whole school as an organization, all teachers need to be involved. Experts say that
people support what they help to create. Thus, if teachers are involved in the different
areas of the entire school system such as leadership, curriculum and instruction, learning
environment, school-community relations, management of resources, there would be a
lesser chance for the school to fail in its effort to render quality service to its customers.

Some of the ways to improve teacher involvement are:

A. Holding exploration conferences

Hold exploration conferences at the beginning of the school year. Encourage teachers
to discuss their plans, hopes, and dreams for the year. The school head and the teachers
must help one another to identify possible constraints that may obstruct the plans from
becoming a reality.

B. Conducting a regular “Learning Action Cell “ session

At least once a week the teachers meet together to discuss and solve teaching
problems encountered. Share and discuss strategies that can be adopted.

C. Assigning teachers as coordinators/chairmen in different areas

Teachers should be given particular activities or areas to handle based on their skills
and abilities. This will bring out their creativity which will benefit the school in the long
run.

D. Mentoring

Assigning a skilled/experienced teacher to guide or assist a lesser skilled teacher to

develop his/her potentials. Harnessing or developing the potential of the lesser skilled
teacher will be of great help to the school.
E. Involving teachers in decision-making

The school head should solicit ideas or opinions of teachers. Soliciting their opinions
will make them feel that they are indispensable members of the organization. Teachers
are more motivated to work for the growth of the school.

F. Holding education summit

Schedule a quarterly education summit where all stakeholders are invited to attend.
Problems and concerns of the school should be presented in the summit for all
stakeholders to design appropriate action to address the problems.

In the Philippines, some 536,000 students enrolled in teacher-training programs- the

second highest among tertiary courses in 2012. But as the Philippine Business for
Education (PBED) noted, only 54 percent of 268,000 first-time takers passed the
Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) between 2009 and 2013. In the last five years,
up to 60 percent of the country’s teacher education institutions (TEIs) failed to get even
half of their graduates to pass the LET. These indicate that major revamps are necessary
in how we educate our mentors.

As ASEAN bids to become a more attractive investment destination, we need to pay

special care and attention on how our teachers, especially English teachers are trained
and nurtured. Their status and pay must be raised to a level commensurate to the
invaluable service they render to the country’s youth.

Teaching and quality learning are intrinsically linked. With the access problem largely
in the past, how do we ensure more quality in schools and classrooms? This question can
be approached in many ways, but it is likely that most of the approaches would, in some
way or another, include teachers.

Teachers are a key element to educational quality because they orchestrate

instructional interactions with and between students around academic content, and these
classroom interactions- in an ideal world- influence student learning.

It is assumed therefore, that teachers and the actions they take in the classroom
fundamentally impact students and what they learn. Often we, as a community of
education stakeholders, take this assumed relationship so far as to assert that educational
systems are only as good as the quality of their teachers.

However, this nearly universal valuation of both teaching and teachers glosses over
the sober realization that individual teachers have differential effects on student learning.
That is, teachers are either more or less successful at facilitating their students‘ progress
toward agreed-upon learning outcomes, and therefore fall somewhere along an idealized
continuum of teacher “effectiveness.“ this has, in turn, swayed the attention of
educational policymakers towards the identification and specification of those aspects of
teaching and of teachers who are more likely to facilitate student learning. To date, four
general areas of the teaching and learning process have been explored as indicative
gauges of instructional effectiveness. These areas are teacher characteristics and
classroom-level inputs, teacher professionalism and conduct, student learning outcomes,
and teaching practice.

Currently, the most prominent- in terms of both research and policy- of thee four
areas are teacher characteristics and student learning outcomes because these areas are
nearly ubiquitously employed to define effective teaching. The student learning outcomes
area is particularly emphasized in high- and middle-income countries, especially with the
advent of regional and international assessments of student learning, but it is also
becoming more commonplace in low-income countries. However, the areas of teacher
characteristics and student learning outcomes define effective teaching not on their own
terms, but rather as either teachers who posses specific characteristics viewed as
profitable for teaching or as teachers whose students make progress against learning
outcome metrics. In other words, effective teaching tends to be conflated with either
effective teachers (i.e., personal characteristics and professional attributes) or with
successful teaching (i.e., those whose students are successful on accepted forms of
assessment).

This bidirectional conflation of good teaching with effective teachers and with
successful teaching is subtle, but important because it has had disastrous consequences
for both education research and policy. Conflating good teaching with effective teachers
has led to a sustained focus on how to recruit, train, and support teachers with the
requisite traits that are (nearly) assumed a priory to facilitate student learning. Put
otherwise, the emphasis has been on equipping a teacher workforce with the personal
characteristics that make “good teachers “ and has largely treated teachers as important,
but perfectly interchangeable components of an educational system.

However, mistaking good teaching with successful teaching has led policymakers to
emphasize and place value on information that students can recall and put into practice
on formal assessments.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said that the department was also pursuing its
programs to further improve English proficiency by pushing ahead with its National
English Proficiency Program (NEPP) to strengthen its Teachers Mentoring Teachers
program.
 Under the program, a total of 10,500 teachers and school administrators have
trained on English proficiency for this year.

Lapus noted that there was continuous improvement in the performance of

students in the National Achievement Test (NAT) within the five-year analysis particularly
in English subject. “We recognize English proficiency is critical in learning as other key
subjects such as Science and Mathematics use English in textbooks and other reference
materials,” said Lapus.

“Filipinos’ edge in the English language is also vital as more work opportunities
here and abroad place premium on language skills,” Lapus assured.

It will be recalled that Andrew King, country director of IDP Education Philippines,
a group accredited by the Australian government to administer the International English
Language Testing System (IELTS) exam to Filipinos who seek to enter Australia as
workers, migrants or students in its universities, recently revealed a seeming drop in
Filipinos’ proficiency in English from the results of Filipino takers of the IELTS they
administered in 2008.

Sharon Adelman Reyes and Trina Lynn Vallone remind us in Constructivist

Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners about what works in schooling, not
just for English Language Learners (ELLs), but for all learners: Students will learn and
progress academically when instruction connects with their prior knowledge, scaffolds
meaning so that students can understand curriculum content, affirms their identities, and
extends their knowledge of language far beyond everyday conversational fluency. When
these conditions are in place, students engage with reading and writing and construct
knowledge in ways that fuel sustained learning.

More recently, a newly arrived and somewhat bewildered ambassador from a

European country remarked rhetorically: "I thought this was supposed to be an English-
speaking country."

These days, among ordinary Filipinos, it is increasingly difficult to find anyone

under the age of 40 who speaks English with confidence.

English arrived in the Philippines more than 100 years ago, when the US replaced
Spain as the colonial power. When independence came in 1946, English was so well
established that it remained an official language.

The reason for the subsequent decline is debatable. Some blame the introduction
of Filipino as the language of instruction in schools in the 1970s. This was controversial,
because Filipino is an invented language intended as a tool for nation-building.
 Filipino is based on Tagalog, the dominant language in Manila and the surrounding
region. As such, it is often resented by people who speak one of the 160 or so other
languages and dialects used around the country. More crucially, the policy contradicted
the principle that it is best to teach children in their native tongue.

Some think the decline has more general causes. "A lot of it is also brought about
because of economic conditions," says Garcia.

The ruination of the economy under Marcos and its persistent under performance
since his fall have led to increases in poverty and relative decreases in the amount
invested in education. Only 65% of children who start primary education finish it, only
43% go on to finish secondary education and only 2% go on to tertiary education.

Along with all other subjects, English has suffered, and not just among school
pupils. By 2004, only one in five teachers in public secondary schools was proficient in
English, department of education figures showed. By 2007 only 7% of secondary school
graduates had a mastery of English.

The government's response was to mandate the teaching of English as a second

language for six-year-old, the use of English as the medium of instruction for some
subjects for eight-year-old, and the use of English as the main medium of instruction for
all subjects in secondary schools. It has also poured money into improving English
proficiency among teachers.

"I think the government is trying," says Garcia. "They should actually increase
standards, and the industry is ready to work with them."

While the government has been pushing, the O&O industry has been pulling.
Garcia says a few hours of extra training is often all that is needed to make an
unacceptable candidate acceptable. And the industry has been spending its own money
on various programs to improve standards among teachers and students.

"It is really adding to costs, in a way, but in the end it will be relatively easy for
the business," Garcia says. "Because of the way the business has grown, it will be able
to accept all of this."

The result has been improvement in the performance of both teachers and pupils.
The most recent survey of Filipinos' own assessment of their own proficiency in English
indicated that English is making a comeback. But then, it is natural to rate one's own
abilities more highly when those abilities might qualify you for a job.
 People need jobs, and the O&O industry needs people, so there are strong
incentives for both employers and potential employees to reverse the decline in English.

"If we do not supply the demand, then we will lose our business," says Garcia.
"We will always need the English language."

And the answer is improving the quality of all teachers not only in English to give
rise to the declining rate of Filipinos who will represent the Philippines.

The following are the criteria for effective faculty by John Hattie:

1. The Relational Factor.

The teacher demonstrates they can make a connection with students. They show that
they genuinely enjoy students, knowing kids learn better when they believe the teacher
likes them.

2. The Formative Process.

The teacher possesses the tools and process by which they assess the students’
understanding of the subject. They utilize a system for measuring student growth.

3. The Environmental Dynamic.

The teacher creates an atmosphere that’s conducive for learning. They find ways to keep
every student “in the game.” No assignment enables a student to give up. The teacher
pursues the marginalized student.

4. The Knowledge Component.

The teacher knows their subject well. They’ve mastered the content and know how to
communicate it to appropriate grade levels.

5. Constant Improvement.

The teacher never stops learning and growing themselves. They find creative ways to
upgrade their lesson plans and pedagogy. They are a “stream,” not a “pond.”

6. Student Voice.

It’s important the teacher has a clear voice in the classroom, but also that students do as
well. The course experience should not be a talking head, a one-way transmission of data
— the students’ needs and make up should inform the pedagogy.
 Dr. Green was quick to say, “Most schools have something similar to this
assessment. Principals must use them well. The key question is: how’s the teacher
feedback process? (This is a structural flaw that often exists on school campuses.) When
does a teacher get to share her story?

“When teachers get evaluated, most structures spend more time on observation
than they do on conversation about the observation. They include elements an observer
looks for, but they don’t talk it through. Often, principals spend no more than five minutes
at any given time in debrief.

In reality, there should be more time in conversation than in observation.

When teachers feel heard, they perform better.”
 References:

“Six Criteria for Good Teachers.” Growing Leaders, 14 Feb. 2017,

growingleaders.com/blog/six-criteria-good-teachers/.

Diala, Sherwin I. “21st Century Skills.” Modern Teacher, June 2017, p. 7.

Sabando, Diana R. . “Raising the status of our Teachers.” Modern Teacher, Oct. 2017,
p. 163.

Reyes, Sharon Adelman., and Trina Lynn. Vallone. Constructivist strategies for teaching
English language learners. Corwin Press, 2008.

Ronda, Rainier Allan. “Education and Home.” Philstar.com, www.philstar.com/.

“To improve quality in education, reconsider true definition of 'good teacher'.” Global
Partnership for Education, www.globalpartnership.org/blog/improve-quality-education-
reconsider-true-definition-good-teacher.

Cabigon, Mike. “INQUIRER.net.” INQUIRER.net | Philippine news for Filipinos, 26 Oct.

2017, www.inquirer.net/.