By: Dr. Rex Casiple
THE Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) recently released the results of March 2019 Licensure Examinations for Teachers (LET) given in 20 testing centers all over the Philippines.
19,659 out of 72,054, or 27.28%, passed the LET-Elementary. 5,078 of the examinees are first takers, while 14,581 are repeaters.
Also, 22,271 out of 85,823, or 25.95%, passed the LET-Secondary, including 15,621 first takers and 6,650 are repeaters. Western Visayas Region performed high in LET-Elementary as its passing percentage was higher than the national average.
In the Top 10 LET-Elementary successful examinees, Dhaenalene May Quiñones Evangelista of West Visayas State University (WVSU) ranked number 6. Congratulations!
In LET-Elementary, 58 out of 79 higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Region (73%) are high performing or with passing average higher than the national level. Sixty nine percent of the high performing HEIs are public schools.
The top five high performing HEIs in the Region (with 50 and above examinees) are WVSU-Main, Central Philippine State University-Cauayan Campus (CPSU-Cauayan), ISAT University-Main, University of San Agustin (USA) and Aklan State University-Ibajay Campus (ASU-Ibajay).
1,294 out of 3,449 examinees in the Region, or 37.52%, passed the said examination. Four out of 10 first takers passed while 3 out of 10 repeaters passed. Eight out of 10 examinees were repeaters.
On the other hand 1,021 out of 4,011, or 25.45%, of the examinees from public and private HEIs in the Region passed the LET-Secondary. Thirty out of 91 HEIs in the Region, or 33%, are high performing. Fifteen out of 30, or 50%, of these high performing HEIs are public schools.
The top four (4) high performing HEIs in the Region (with 50 and above examinees) are Central Philippine University (CPU), University of Saint La Salle (USLS) in Bacolod City, WVSU-Main and University of San Agustin. Five (5) out of 10 first takers passed while 1 out of 10 repeaters passed. Six (6) out of 10 examinees were repeaters.
The West Visayas State University in La Paz, Iloilo City is the designated Center of Excellence (COE) in Teacher Education of the Commission on Higher Education in Western Visayas. Central Philippine University, University of San Agustin, ISAT University, and the University of Saint La Salle are the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) designated Centers of Development (CODs) in Teacher Education in Western Visayas.
In the past 3 three years, the continuing increase in the salary of public school teachers attracts the best and the brightest students from top colleges and universities to take teacher education programs. In the light of K-12 implementation, revised curriculum for teacher education remains at four years to preserve the quality of Teacher Education in the country and to be compliant with the international standard requirements for Teacher Education.
In the latest news, there is a plan for another round of increase in the salary of public school teachers in the country. However, as of now there is no sufficient budget yet to support this plan to increase or double the wages of public school teachers.
Research showed that the quality of teacher is a powerful factor of quality education, preferably in the elementary and secondary levels. This problem of hiring quality teachers always start in teacher recruitment. For this reason, the series of increase in the salary of teachers improved the hiring of quality teachers specifically in the rural, isolated or remote areas.
