The Department of Education (DepEd) recognized the role of education research in improving the quality of education in the country.
In Secretary’s keynote address during the celebration of the RCTQ partnerships at the Philippine Normal University, in Manila, August 29, she commended the works of the Research Center for Teacher Quality (RCTQ) and underscored its important role as the Department pivots from enhancing access to ensuring quality basic education.
The said research center was established as a result of the partnership between the SiMERR National Research Center at the University of New England (UNE) in Australia and the Philippine Normal University (PNU), the National Center for Teacher Education.
Its vision is to provide evidence-based policy advice for strengthening teacher quality, while its mission is to conduct high-impact applied research directed at strengthening teacher quality.
“I’m so pleased that there is an institution exclusively focusing on research in education,” Department of Education Secretary Leonor Briones said.
“We cannot have quality education or quality learners without quality teachers,” she emphasized.
The said department also recognized RCTQ’s active involvement and advice on DepEd’s plan to transform the National Educators’ Academy of the Philippines (NEAP).
“We also have to look at the quality of our training institutions which produce our teachers,” Briones explained.
“This is a very interesting area of research because motivation propels the quality of work, your attitude towards your students, and so on and so forth,” she added.
The department knows that research translates to the quality of teaching, the interest in teaching, and the interest to improve oneself even as one continues teaching.”
While the policy has to be research-based, communication is also very important, according to Briones.
“How do we communicate the needs of education? How do we communicate the results of our researches, so that our major, number one policymaker, the Congress- will take steps to implement such results of research?” Briones asked.
She also said that it is so wonderful to find out the nature of things, the nature of the behavior, the impact of knowledge, and preparing young learners for a world which will be very different from the world that we have.
“So, we prepare them for change, we prepare them to adjust and tell them that they have to stay human, and in the case of our learners, they must stay Filipino,” she added.
Guests during the event include Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Steven Robinson who also delivered a message; Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei Nograles who led the celebratory toast to RCTQ partnerships and teacher quality efforts in the Philippines; DepEd Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan; Professor Michael Wilmore of UNE and Dr. Ma. Antoinette Montealegre of PNU who both led the ceremonial signing of the Memorandum of Agreement/Understanding between the two institutions; RCTQ Co-Directors Dr. Gina Gonong and Dr. John Pegg; and officials of PNU, UNE, and RCTQ.
