A call for policy reforms in graduate education
Capacity development of elementary and secondary teachers in public schools has always been a priority of the Philippine government, and this has transcended beyond partisan politics. In fact, support for teachers’ graduate studies is articulated in several directives of the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) over the years.
Data from CHEd shows that in the last 10 school years, more than half of our country’s total enrollment in graduate programs is in the field of education. Yet, our elementary and secondary students in the basic education sector have been lagging based on Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and Programme for International Student Assessment results in the last 20 years. In some of these years, the Philippines ranked bottom.
So, what is it that we are failing to see? Our recently concluded study on the state of graduate education in the country under the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EdCom II) revealed an unexplored side of our educational system: that while we have extensive studies on the different levels of our educational system, there is little research that looks at the link between them. We’ve always seen our educational system as linear: elementary, secondary, vocational, tertiary, and graduate school. In addition, the current trifocalized governance system inadvertently created a policy arena that is siloed. Therefore, our policies solve problems in each “system,” but there is very little problem-solving done in the larger education ecosystem.
This is the case of teacher education, where policy incentives over the years have sustained the demand in the discipline’s graduate fields. This demand motivated many public and private higher education institutions to set up master’s and doctoral programs in education around the country. However, this has also created an imbalance in terms of how we are able to produce graduates with specialized knowledge in areas such as mathematics and the sciences, which our public schools badly need.
Then, of course, there is the unavailability of specialized master’s and doctoral programs in some regions in the country, coupled with the fact that the majority of our higher education institutions offering graduate degrees are private and located in the National Capital Region (NCR). This makes graduate education an expensive investment.
Over the years, various CHEd policies have reinforced vertical alignment of qualifications, particularly for teaching positions. This may seem logical in ensuring that we train a good number of teachers in schools and universities to be competent in specialized knowledge. However, for this to work accordingly, it assumes two things. First, we have enough faculty in higher education institutions with specialized PhDs in all regions to ensure that specialized master’s and doctoral programs are as widely accessible as possible. Second, our elementary and secondary school teachers have specialized bachelor’s degrees to be admitted to a specialized graduate degree.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. On the first assumption, the minimum requirement to offer a graduate program in a specialized field for higher education institutions is to have at least five full-time faculty with a PhD degree in this field. Since the majority of our master’s and doctoral degrees in the country relate to teacher education, finding a specialized program will mean one must relocate to NCR and enroll in a private university where the majority of the specialized PhD programs are offered.
As for the second assumption, teachers in basic education come from a more general education degree, such as the Bachelor of Elementary Education or the Bachelor of Secondary Education, with some units for specialization.
Graduate programs are expected to play a significant role in achieving national development goals. Boosting research, creativity, and innovation allows our country to solve many of our problems better. This also facilitates evidence-informed policy making.
However, the uneven distribution of more specialized graduate programs across regions challenges the capability-building goals at all levels of our educational ecosystem, such as the case of teacher education. For a start, we recommend that CHEd and DepEd jointly review the impact of the policy on vertical alignment on graduate degrees based on current realities to address systemic and structural inequalities. Ensuring a diversified graduate education landscape in the regions is a necessary step towards institutionalizing long-lasting education reforms at all levels.
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Anne Candelaria is the assistant vice president for graduate education at Ateneo de Manila University. Eric Arthur Dio is the dean of the graduate school of University of St. La Salle. Jovelyn G. Delosa is the vice president for academic affairs of Northern Bukidnon State College. The authors are EdCom II Ateneo research fellows.
