Positive Changes in Professional Development for Teachers

In a significant meeting that took place today, January 24, 2024, at 10:00 AM, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) met with representatives from ACT Teachers Party-list, ACT Philippines, and ACT NCR Union. This meeting addressed important issues about Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for teachers in the Philippines.

The PRC team included Chairperson Hon. Charito Zamora, Commissioners Erwin Enad, Jose Cueto, and Regulations Office Director Atty. Maria Liza Hernandez. Representing teachers were ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro, ACT Chairperson Vladimer Quetua, ACT NCR Union President Ruby Ana Bernado, and ACT NCR Union North Cluster Vice President Wilhelmina Vibar.

Two major concerns were discussed during this meeting:

1. CPD Requirements, Undertakings, and Programs
2. DepEd’s Automatic Credit Unit Encoding Mechanism for Recognizing Credit Units Earned through School-Based, District, Division, and Regional-Level Seminars and Training Sessions

These issues came from teachers worrying about what would happen to them after the Deadline of Undertakings on December 31, 2023. Teachers, who already earn low salaries, questioned why the seminars they attended with their time and money weren’t being recognized.

In a positive turn of events, the Commission responded positively to our concerns:

✔️ They will release guidelines soon to extend the undertaking period while DepEd and PRC work on improving their systems. In simple terms, teachers who are concerned about obtaining 15 credit units this year will be allowed to renew their PRC ID/License even before earning those units.

✔️ PRC will now consider ongoing In-Service Training (INSETs) in schools and other DepEd seminars as CPD Units. Since 2017, we’ve advocated for not making teachers pay for CPD units but having the government provide them for free. PRC will also provide more details on this soon.

Our persistent efforts have shown that we can achieve positive changes. So, if more teachers stand up for their rights to fair salaries, good benefits, and a supportive teaching environment, we can achieve even more success.