CURRENT PROBLEMS IN EVALUATING BASIC EDUCATION TEACHERS IN PHILIPPINE SCHOOLS

    

      
Education in the Philippines has been lagging behind most of its Southeast Asian neighbors. Of late, it has already been overtaken by some poor African countries. The reason is obvious: it was never a genuine government priority! In the meantime, the situation worsens. The system keeps on producing graduates who are not skilled enough to get the best jobs. The unemployment and underemployment rates have been increasing yearly. But the problem is not only the lack of funds for education. One problem also is how teachers teach, and how these teachers are evaluated.


It has always been said that the quality of students depends so much on the quality of teachers. But if we push the analysis further back, then it needs to be pointed out that their training also in teacher colleges is lacking in rigour and quality. This is proven by the fact that many such teachers-to-be face difficulties passing the board exams. But of course, it is also wrong to conclude that merely passing the Philippine Regulatory Commission’s exams for teachers makes a great teacher. Otherwise, the country’s educational system, both in public and private, should be teeming with great teachers producing great students. In other words, the Philippine educational system should be great as well. But it is not!



Teachers are supposed to be observed by principals or their coordinators in schools. The idea is to give such teachers feedback on how they can improve. But I have met some teachers who spend so much time copying the previous’ years lesson plans, a tool to check if the teacher is prepared for her classes. In these cases that I know, the so called evaluation of teachers’ lesson plans is based more on handwriting and not on content, method, much less on the impact of such plans as the checkers only superficially read – or worse, do not read at all – such evaluation tool. Imagine reading the lesson plans for all the lessons in various subjects of dozens, if not hundreds, of teachers daily or weekly? The bottom line here, to make the long story short, is that teachers are left on their own to determine if what they are teaching is sufficient or not.


Aside from this, teachers are supposed to be observed in classrooms. During such evaluations, teachers are told that they will be evaluated. Thus, the teacher prepares her presentation for that day. It is not inconceivable that even the students of that particular teacher to be observed are rehearsed to answer particular questions. In short, the teacher being observed is there to “perform” before “an audience”. This theatrical approach does not serve to solve the problem of the educational system as the real weaknesses of classroom realities are momentarily masked by “prepared teaching” and great reviews of the shows.


Another way of evaluating teachers is to look at the performance of students in a subject. Accordingly, if the students do not get good grades in that subject, then they did not learn; if they obtained good grades, then they must have learned something. But who makes and checks the exams? The answer is: the teacher herself. Consequently, if the teacher finished only one half of the book, then she will write the examination covering merely the the pages of the book taught. The obvious dilemma here is that even if the students got 100% in that examination, they only know half of what they ought to learn especially in comparison with students of other schools which made sure that learners finished and mastered the whole book. Additionally, it must be mentioned that a teacher in a situation where she will be judged based on the grade of her students may write an examination with easy-to-answer questions in order to adjust to the demands of her superiors.


These are only three of the problems of teacher evaluation. The teacher may be interested in the real learning of her students. Yet, the practices in some, if not many, schools may be forcing her to adapt in such ways that do not help students in general. She may hate writing and rewriting lesson plans that will be graded based on handwriting, but will she resist it and risk her employment? She may be genuinely enthralled with the idea of excelling for her students, but what can she do if the rules of her school demand that she puts up a show before her so called critic? She may be sincerely concerned in making her students finish the whole book and write a challenging examination, but what can she do if her one-hour class is populated with 60 to 100 students that she won’t be able to attend to the needs of each and every one of them?


These are just some problems in evaluating Basic Education teachers in the Philippines. How do they get out of this cycle? How else could they better themselves in a situation where they ought to adjust to practices that by themselves do not seem to help mend the situation. The Philippine educational system should not be contented with teacher’s evaluation for evaluation’s sake. Part of the solution, apparently, is changing the very methods of evaluating teachers since the current methods perpetuate mediocrity not only in classroom teaching but also in student learning.







Prof. Rolando S. Dela Cruz

14 March 2010, 7:00 pm