MANILA, 4 February 2007 — Some 14,503 English teachers in the elementary and high school levels took the language proficiency exam in testing centers nationwide as part of a campaign to make the English language proficiency as the “flagship program” of the Department of Education.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo recently told her officials to pay particular attention to teachers in English, science and mathematics in low performing schools culled from the 2007 National Achievement Test (NAT).
Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said that the government wants to make Filipinos experts in the English language as it is the “”building block” to learning.
President Arroyo earlier expressed her fears over the deterioration of the use of this foreign language in public elementary and secondary schools, even among teachers.
The test is expected to measure the teachers’ aptitude on the structure of English. It mainly includes reading comprehension, written expression as well as grammar. An estimated 12,794 teachers from 1,898 elementary schools and 1,709 teachers from 265 secondary schools took the test.
Lapus likewise said that the test results will assess the improvement of 16, 625 English majors and 2, 267 non-English majors who have been teaching the students who scored low in the NAT.
Under the Teachers Mentoring Other Teachers Program, teachers are trained to teach other teachers.
Based on earlier reports, the examinees are teachers in elementary and high schools that fared dismally in the latest NAT conducted nationwide.
About 7,300 public school teachers underwent intensive and hands-on training in English proficiency. The teachers, in turn, echoed what they learned to 95,000 teachers in their respective schools under the Teachers Mentoring Teachers Program.
“We have to determine exactly what we can do to improve English proficiency among our teachers to allow us to come up with more appropriate programs that will address the problem,” Lapus noted.
Director Nelia Benito of the department’s National Educational Testing and Research Center said the test results will also be used in crafting programs that will tackle the teachers’ deficiencies in teaching English. “The test will also provide baseline data for policy and decision makers in formulating effective programs to address the needs of the teachers,” she stressed.
It will pinpoint areas of concern that require immediate attention during the conduct of the program and lead to specific action plans to solve the deficiency and improve school performance.
“Policy and decision makers can promptly formulate lessons, instructions and manuals that directly deal with the areas of concern,” she added.
Writer: Gloria Esguerra Melencio, Arab News / http://arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=106456&d=4&m=2&y=2008