Why do teachers in the Philippines suck?

I'm a half-blooded Filipino but a full-fledged Filipino citizen. I am a teacher too who has earned his bachelor and master's degrees in the Philippines. I know that everyone of us is entitled to his own opinions. So here's my response, I guess the underlying reason behind why teachers in the Philippines "suck" (according to you) is that they are not fully equipped with the necessary training and preparation. Physical, emotional, and psychological preparedness also count. Teacher Education is a degree which can be earned by anyone because of its low cost tuition but it entails the proper attitude and lifelong commitment. Many education graduates say that it was their last option to take up education as a course, some say it is one of the "cheapest" course, while others would claim that it wasnt their choice at all, they were just prodded and forced by parents and relatives perhaps, and so on. Yes, they are right but on the other hand, they must take into account what kind of teachers they will be once they have passed the licensure examination for teachers. Its a depressing fact that ANYONE CAN BE A TEACHER BUT NOT EVERYONE CAN TEACH. Because it takes the right attitude, passion, patience, and perseverance to be the master of the classroom. I have been teaching for 5 years before being appointed as a school principal. When I recruit teachers, I dont go deeper to their As or 95 and up grades in their course. What I consider is their commitment and dedication in their craft. How flexible and creative they are as regards problems and conflict in class. I also take into account their teaching experience in related field and not to mention an above average level of written and oral English proficiency. The challenges they have encountered and how they got through them also count because teachers dont MOLD the lives of the young, instead they KINDLE, TOUCH, and MAKE A DIFFERENCE onto the lives of learners.

how many teachers have you encountered in your life to make such a statement? I came from a family of teachers, my mom used to be a public school teacher, her brother my late uncle was also a teacher, her sister my late auntie used to be the dean of the college of arts and sciences in MCU, that was in the 70's, my mom's cousins, my auntie and uncle were retired UP professors, they are still alive, a late auntie used to be a professor in UST, biology major, one of my cousins is also a professor in one university in Pangasinan. Imagine how many student they handled during their tenure? My mom spent 40 years of her life teaching, she's now 80 and retired. She has pupils who are very successful professionals now both in the Philippines and abroad. These pupils are now successful doctors, nurses, lawyers, engineers, teachers accountants but there are also who became nothing because they opted not to go to school. I landed a good job here outside the Phiilippines, same with my brother who is an accountant, we did our studies in the Philippines, we finished our educattion in the Philippines. Not all our teachers and professors during our schooldays were good, but we continued to strive to learn. I would not be able to learn to write and read if not because of my teachers that in spite of their low salary still dedicated their life to teach. "Maybe" these days the quality of training for the teachers is poor. I knew from my mom's stories in the past that there are teachers who do not have brains. But still we should not blame them as learning is not confined in the classroom. Learning is a never-ending process and we are the one in control of our learning, we should not depend evrything to the teachers. I think you need to develop a positive attitude and that would be for your own benefit and not for the teachers that sucks as you say.

Hello Jame, Maybe you haven't encounter the best teacher yet, or never in your school life, probably that's because "the best of the best are dwindling". My mom is a retired public school teacher but one of the best during her time, they always asked for her helped when she was a master teacher. it's really hard though that the new ones aren't good as the previous ones inthe past. before, there's a supervisor checking the teachers strictly, but they don't exist anymore.. they're heroes but being a HERO is not enough, they need to have a Reasonable Salary. We will never have the equal standard with the economically powerful nations because of corruption that is within the government.

You really must have had a bad and traumatic experience with a teacher. But even this is not an excuse to extend such experience to all teachers. Something must have happened to make you ask such a question. And I am curious about your question on ego. Is there a reason for this? There are good and bad teachers and there are bad and good person in any profession just as there are good and bad students. But I would be cautious to generalize this to all. Have a nice day.

you should not judge a teacher as a whole. You don't know the sacrifices and difficulty of the teacher in our country. I would rather says that our GOVERNMENT SUCKS!They should done their support to the poor teachers that are underpaid.We should be proud of our Filipino teachers - they are heroes.

It just saddens me that of all people, a Filipino would describe Filipino teachers in such a way. I mean, I'm a Filipino too and if anyone ever asked me if it was true that Filipino teachers suck, I would go, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! FILIPINO TEACHERS ARE AWESOME!" I would be the first to deny it because I'm a Filipino and if a plain Filipino like me would say that Filipino teachers suck, it was like admitting that I also suck just by being Filipino. I get your point, jamedmaverick that you're not trying to personally attack our teachers by saying that they're suckers. I have to agree that the way most of them teach sucks. I've experienced a fair dose of that in high school. It seems that most of our teachers are not confident enough about the profession they've chosen. Some of them even make use of their authority as a teacher to turn their students into lab rats by trying things on them. It's a sad reality. But we should also remember that not all of our teachers are incompetent, that we shouldn't make hasty generalizations. As for your question WHY DO TEACHERS IN THE PHILIPPINES SUCK?, I think it's because the system sucks. Let's face it. The educational system in the Philippines is in its all-time low and if one is exposed to low-quality education, nothing of high-quality could ever be expected from that person. I really think that before we produce teachers who don't suck, we should first produce students who don't suck. It's about time we reinvent the system for the better.

I live in Brazil and we have an education problem here that is like this one you're describing, but the problem here is as follows: 1. In the 1970s and 1980s, new pedagogic paradigms were adopted by most schools, which were against beating of kids and etc. Yes, I agree that was necessary, but these new paradigms involved other methods of teaching which proved to be a disaster later. 2. In the 1950s, teaching was a profession with high salaries, teachers had recognition of their work, but that ceased to happen with time. As teachers only need a bachelor's degree + 1 year of studies for their profession, people who didn't want to be teachers started in the career as it was easy to get a job. With the time, fewer and fewer teachers who really liked their profession stayed, as salaries were (and still are) low. There are many other reasons, but I think that the best we can do is to recognize how important teachers are, protest for better salaries etc.

It's not the teachers who are to be blamed, it's the whole system in general. We lack the facilities, the materials, the infrastructure, and the support from the government for education. Most of our funds are being misused by the congress and the majority of the Filipinos either turn a blind eye or just don't care at all. Rather than blaming the teachers, why don't you look at it in a fresher perspective. Most of our teachers are willing to teach the students, the only problem is they haven't got the tools and equipment to properly teach them.

hello jamed! i agree with you that some teachers suck but not all of them. Your statement is a generalization, which could bruise the ego and pride of real gifted teachers. There are teachers who just don't have the real qualification and dedication that traditional teachers must possess.I think, the quality of teachers have slowly deteriorated over the years. Yes, they're more educationally qualified, what with their PhD's, masteral education but it seems to me, they just don't have that "talent" to be a real teacher. I even know some teachers who are not only categorically illiterate but who acts and dresses like they're attending parties or going to the bar, which would make any parents ask themselves, if they are right to send their children to be educated under the tutelage of such physically flashy teachers. As with everyone else, teachers are different from one another and so are students. Generalizing them would be a grave offense to most of them.

Hi! My mother is a principal. My sister is going to be a full fledged teacher in two month's time. I had the same thoughts and analyzed the situation as I see them. I think the reason why teachers "suck" because our teachers lack in training. They were not trained well when they were still taking up their Education degree in college. As they become teachers, they also aren't given any training to polish their craft. Also, our teachers are less motivated to do better. All they think is how to make money.

I dont think that teachers in the Philippines sucks. The reasons for the kind of education the Philippines have are most likely due to the following reasons: 1. Lack of resources provided by the school specially the public school 2. Lack of training and re-training for new knowledge 3. Salary does not increase so the motivation is not there 4. Facilities of schol are not enough for all the students 5. Learning capacity of the kids

I guess you have been misunderstood here because of the title of this discussion. You have used the wrong term that is why it really sounds discriminating and your statement has generalized all teachers, but it captures our attention though. Anyway, do you mean to ask, "Why does teachers doesn't do what they're supposed to do?" If you say yes then there are lots of reasons why. There are still a many teachers who are exemplary in the field of teaching. There are teachers who teach because they love to teach and others teach because they need to teach and earn for a living. I remember our teachers back then, they have been our second parent and our friend. That makes them special to us and us to them. If you think that teachers suck then take it a challenge for you to achieve your goals. I believe that no matter what school we are in or teachers that we have as long as we have the motivation and determination then nothing can stop us. If we would want to change our education system then the government should come first.

Hi. I'm a Filipino too. I finished two courses actually. Well in our country, it is been a common practice that good quality education came from private schools. Tendencies would be, private school owners hire the best teacher of course. I am glad to hear when our government said they will now focus on primary level. A lot of people reacted to it especially when those budget for state universities and colleges will be cut. But when they explained. I tend to understand. Because I for one was a victim of those teachers who taught us with wrong information. Noticed nowadays. There are lots of graduates no matter how intelligent they are, they showed some weaknesses still. For instance. English. A lot uses wrong grammar, diction, etc. I am talking general of course. But so sad because it takes time to correct such mistake made by those 'teachers'. Either we're done in school or as of today everyone is capable of correcting wrong feeds of information. Thanks to the internet world for that matter. But I will disagree with you at some point. Because not everyone sux somehow. Maybe in 10 teachers. 2 or 3 are the best :P God bless!