In the summer of 2001, the UP Diliman Extension Programs in Pampanga and Olongapo (UPDEPPO) held what is called a MENSA (Mathematics, English, and Science Advancement Seminars for Philippine Public School Teachers) seminar for 160 public school teachers from the province of Bataan.
I am now proposing to the Department of Education (DepEd) to implement the above project on a national basis, adopting it as a nationwide program.
This is now imperative, as our teachers and students are being left behind globally in mathematics, English, and science instruction.
The abovementioned MENSA seminars were the first of their kind in the country and was sponsored and funded by the provincial government of Bataan, under Gov. Leonardo “Ding” B. Roman.
Earlier, then Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman Felicito Payumo expressed his intention of making SBMA, not just an investment center but also an educational and training center, with UPDEPO fulfilling this role.
Gov. Roman then invited UPDEPPO faculty, (myself included) to a meeting at the Bataan Provincial Capitol where he requested us to hold the seminars for Bataan’s public school teachers, whose teaching skills, he underscored, needed improvement.
In response, we in UPDEPPO proposed MENSA.
The MENSA trainings were facilitated by top-caliber PhDs from UP who gave an intensive weeklong “retooling” training to the 160 Bataan teachers.
The idea was to expose the teachers, many of whom taught in remote Bataan barangays, to the most up-to-date methods and content in the subjects concerned. The subjects covered were Mathematics, English, Chemistry, Physics, and Biology.
Gov. Roman noted the low UP College Admissions Test (UPCAT) passing rate of Bataan students. He then agreed with Chairman Payumo’s proposal to have Bataan’s public school teachers “retooled” in SBMA.
Chairman Payumo, for his part, suggested that UPDEPPO’s building in SBMA be used for the “retooling” seminars.
The seminars gave the organizers many valuable ideas about the conditions of the participants. The most important of these was that the teachers were more concerned about learning content rather than method.
In response, the participants were given cutting-edge information and teaching technologies in their respective fields.
As a testimony to the effectiveness of the UP-facilitated MENSA seminars, Bataan representatives won first prize in the editorial writing competitions at the Central Luzon public schools press conference, shortly after the training.
To reiterate, I am now proposing to the Department of Education (DepEd) that it utilize the MENSA program, as implemented in 2001, by UPDEPPO, to train teachers in other parts of the Philippines. In other words, MENSA should be adopted by DepEd on a national basis.
This endeavor will have the following goals:
1. To gain a better understanding of the situation and needs of Filipino public school teachers as they teach math, English, and science;
2. To make policy recommendations with the above information as the basis;
3. To train trainers that will replicate the seminars in the various provinces, and towns of the Philippines;
4. To give the participants a global perspective in which to situate their roles as teachers.
To conclude, the best way to keep the Philippine labor force competitive is to retrain Filipino public school teachers in the latest English, science, and mathematics content and methods. This should be done on a national scale, and at the primary and secondary levels.
Priority should be given to public school teachers. If we want to advance the English, science, and mathematics proficiencies of our youth, the most cost-effective way is to start with their teachers.
