MANILA, (PIA) -- Senator Win Gatchalian said he is planning to seek an inquiry on the status of non-performing Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) or those that fail to produce passers of the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET).

Gatchalian said this during a hearing on the results of the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). In that same hearing, Dr. Edizon A. Fermin, Chairperson of the Technical Panel for Teacher Education of the Commission on Higher Education (TPTE-CHED), said that a CHED Memorandum Order will be issued on the gradual phaseout on two types of TEIs: those that do not perform well in the LET and those non-compliant TEIs or those that do not meet the Commission’s criteria.

“You will have this Committee’s support and EDCOM’s support in the phaseout of those underperforming TEIs. We have been recommending that for quite some time already and, in fact, we discussed that in EDCOM,” Gatchalian assured Dr. Fermin.

“There is a solution to the 'misalignment' between pre-service and in-service. And that is the excellence in teacher education law, where we empowered the Teacher Education Council with numerous powers to include a bigger voice or a stronger voice to DepEd so that this misalignment and coordination will improve between pre-service and in-service. And we are still awaiting to operationalize that law to its fullest,” Gatchalian added.

In its report titled Miseducation: The Failed System of Philippine Education, the EDCOM II flagged that passing rates in the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) have been low, and the quality assurance of teacher education institutions is weak. The EDCOM II noted that between 2009 and 2023, the average LET passing rate for elementary was 33 percent, and 40 percent for secondary.

The Commission added that between 2012 and 2022, 77 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) offering Bachelor of Elementary Education and 105 HEIs offering Bachelor of Secondary Education continued operations despite having consistently zero passing rates in the LET.

Gatchalian said that he plans to conduct the injury jointly with the Senate Committee on Higher Education. (PIA-NCR)