Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics - IEA

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PART 2: PHILIPPINES 135 in higher mathematics are certified to teach this subject in secondary school after taking five education courses and teaching practicum(s), and passing the licensure examination for teachers (LET-mathematics). It seems that attracting qualified mathematics and science teachers will be a necessary and key focus of education policy in the Philippines for years to come. Teacher education and recruitment Almost all higher education institutions in the Philippines offer standard four-year teacher education programs with relatively low tuition rates. 19 Most primary and secondary school teachers earn Bachelor’s degrees in, respectively, elementary or secondary education; very few individuals earn Master’s degrees. Upper-secondary school teachers also study a major and minor field as part of their secondary-level education degree (Agarao-Fernandez & Guzman, 2005). Prospective teachers often take subject specialty courses within their respective education degrees rather than taking separate subject-specific majors. There is a growing awareness that teacher education in the Philippines needs to transition away from general education and methods courses toward more subjectspecific content. For example, in 1997, around 50% of the teacher education program curriculum focused on general education. In 2004, however, the Commission on Higher Education set alternative curricular guidelines that not only balanced the number of general education and subject-content courses but also emphasized professionalism, field study, and special topics courses (Agarao-Fernandez & Guzman, 2005). Unfortunately, because of limited funds, most teacher education programs do not provide practical field training for prospective teachers. In-service teachers have difficultly accessing professional development programs, again because of funding limitations. Upon graduating, prospective teachers must participate in the challenging LET, which had an annual pass rate of only 25% to 35% from 1996 to 2004 (Agarao-Fernandez & Guzman, 2005). The low pass rate is perhaps due to the tenuous relationship between teacher education programs and examination content, and to the fact that fewer than 30% of the teacher education programs in the Philippines meet the minimum benchmark of the Commission for Higher Education. Many teachers secure their civil service status by fulfilling the alternative requirement of teaching for over 10 years; eventually, more than 70% of teachers do pass the examination (BLES, 2003). In terms of recruitment, the Department of Education hires the largest proportion of teachers. In 1998 alone, the department recruited over 300,000 teachers and 33,000 administrative or supervisory staff (Acedo, 1999). The department’s hiring process generally accounts for around 80% of its budget, crowding out funds that could improve other areas of education (Acedo, 1999). Acedo also noted in her 1999 report that teachers hired by the department had been inefficiently allocated in the previous years, either because of administrative policies or the 1966 “Magna Carter for Teachers,” which stipulates that teachers must agree to transfer to other schools as directed. According to Acedo, local school boards were using local funds to hire “supplementary teachers” to fill their community’s unmet preferences or needs, a practice that continues today. These teachers are paid less because of limited local funds, even though they are (arguably) of comparable caliber to the teachers hired by the Department of Education. 19 About 85% of the higher education institutions that provide teacher education programs are private; the rest are public. In addition, each region of the Philippines has at least 15 higher education institutions that provide teacher education programs (Agarao-Fernandez & Guzman, 2005).
136 TEACHER PAY AND STUDENT MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT Teacher salaries and workload Primary and secondary school teachers in the Philippines have similar salary schedules. A teacher with a minimum teaching qualification earns roughly 2.05 times the GDP per capita as a starting salary, 2.26 times the GDP per capita after 15 years of experience, and 2.43 times the GDP per capita after 30 years of experience (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2006). A teacher with maximum qualifications and 30 years of experience earns a salary that is 3.66 times the GDP per capita (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2006). In terms of international PPP dollars, the average salary for a primary or secondary school teacher with minimum qualifications is $9,418 if that teacher has no years of experience, $10,396 if he or she has 15 years of experience, $11,195 if he or she has 30 years of experience, and $16,833 if he or she has 30 years of experience and maximum qualifications (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2006). To move from the minimum to the maximum salary, teachers need to have been teaching, on average, for 22 years (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2006). Agarao-Fernandez and Guzman (2005) note that a public school teacher’s maximum salary is only P10,000, well under the National Economic and Development Authority’s basic living standard of P16,710 for an average family. Teachers, they observe, may not only experience difficulty meeting their basic household needs but also have to purchase their own teaching materials. Finally, teachers generally receive non-wage benefits and bonuses only if their work is outstanding or if they obtain higher education degrees beyond the basic requirement (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2006). Mathematics and science teachers do not seem to earn additional benefits or bonuses, even though they are generally in shorter supply. In the Philippines (as in other countries), teachers are not paid on the basis of the subjects they teach but according to the level of the education system they teach, that is, primary, secondary, or tertiary. To compound the salary issue, teachers in the Philippines face a heavy workload in terms of work hours and class sizes. Primary and lower-secondary school teachers are required to work 196 days out of the school year for 30 hours per week, while uppersecondary teachers are required to work 25 hours per week. However, the number of hours each year that teachers in the Philippines teach is considerably more than the hours taught by their colleagues in most other East Asian countries (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2006). In 1998, the Teacher Education Commission broke down the weekly teaching load of a typical teacher in the Philippines as follows: 20 hours of actual teaching, 15 hours of preparation and grading, and 10 hours on other tasks. According to the commission, teachers at this time were working more than the 40-hours-per-week civil-service requirement (Education Commission, cited in Agarao-Fernandez & Guzman, 2005). From what we understand, the situation is much the same today. Furthermore, class sizes in both primary and secondary schools are relatively large, with an average of 42 students per class in the former and 36 in the latter in 2004 (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2006). Many classes in urban areas have 60 to 75 students. These large numbers very likely act as a further deterrent to anyone considering entering mathematics teaching. We estimated and compared the salaries of teachers with the salaries of two other occupations for two years, 2001 and 2006. Our estimates suggest that both male and female teachers are paid better than university graduates who are not scientists, but
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