Re-engineering teacher training for the “U.N. Sustainable Development Agenda 2030’ (Part II of “In Search of the New Teacher”)

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was established in 1946 with its main headquarters in Paris, France. This non-political agency of the United Nations was determined to help countries recover from the destruction of war through non-political means. The Preamble to the Constitution of UNESCO declares, “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.“ Ever since then global literacy has been the focus of UNESCO to achieve peace.

Eastablishing the operation brotherhood Montessori K-12 from 1966 to 1987

Oscar Arellano, President of Operation Brotherhood International, perceived the need of poor children for the Montessori system. He appointed me Chairman of the OB Philippines Children’s projects during the relocation of 3,000 illegal settlers from Intramuros to Sapang Palay, as well as the settlement of the Taal Volcano refugees to Lemery, Batangas. These inspired three Italian ambassadors to give me study grants to Italy to train in the Montessori system for preschoolers in Perugia (1964) and in Bergamo (1968) for elementary school, with a travel grant to visit several professional high schools in Florence, Milan, Padova, and Venice.

The non-stock, non-profit Operation Brotherhood Montessori preschools and grade schools were expanding by 1986 when Vice President and Foreign Affairs Secretary Salvador Laurel appointed me country representative to UNESCO. I occupied the position until I became Secretary General. Meantime the whole OB Montessori version of Basic Education, inclusive of professional high school (K-12), was already being practiced by 1987.

Under my watch as secretary-general, the Philippines became the Southeast Asian Center for Lifelong Education for Sustainable Development in 2005.

The 1991 vision to re-train public school teachers

When the UNESCO Education For All (EFA) was declared in 1990, the Senate ratified the Convention for the Rights of the Child (CRC). I was part of the national CRC delegation to Geneva as chairman of the Popularization Committee. EFA was evaluated after 10 years in Dakar, Africa, and it was found to be wanting in quality. And so as a technical committee member of the EDCOM we had to survey the whole educational set up of the Philippines.

In 1991 when I interviewed then newly installed DECS Secretary Isidro Cariño, I wistfully volunteered to experiment training school teachers in the public school. This has materialized in 2001 with our EFA-DAKAR pilot project using the Angeles Elementary School in Pulung Bulu in Angeles, Pampanga as the laboratory for the six provinces of Region 3.

I told him then that each of our eight Operation Brotherhood Montessori Pagsasarili Preschools for poor children in Metro Manila were adjacent to a public elementary school. Every year, most of our graduates would enroll in these elementary schools and they would almost always land among the top five in the Grade I class. The average Pagsasarili Preschool program triggered much more than RIGHT CONDUCT. At the age of four to five-years-old the children readily acquire concentration, love for work, order, obedience, and friendliness as well as attaining the competence of a third and fourth grader. These “new children” are likely not to lose their strong character if the traditional public school teachers were re-trained in the Montessori Pagsasarili curriculum.

What true education must develop is not a mechanical man

What true education must develop is not a mechanical man, which like a watch, must be wound from outside constantly. The educated man should be more like a quartz watch. He moves because of the power within him.

This is a humbling task requiring minute knowledge and patient attention. This “new teacher” is trained to observe each child. The first part of training, guides the teacher to master child observation, how each child converses and behaves, writing every ten minutes how the student works. This is not possible in a conventional classroom entirely dependent on textbooks and strict rationing of time per subject. Whereas the Montessori “prepared environment” classroom  is a well-equipped with various hands-on materials per subject (instead of a common textbook) which allows the teacher to condition the child to work independently on all subjects within a working period of one hour.

The “New Teacher” serves as the dynamic link

How is this “new relationship” carried out? The OBMC Teacher Formation course has been developing these “new teachers” since 1966 (even for the Pagsasarili teachers of underprivileged children). It acts on the principle that “the child is in the process of becoming, while the adult has reached the norm of the species.” Herein is a diagram contrasting the traditional teacher from the “new teacher”

The traditional teacher teaches the child directly by lecturing using books or the blackboard. The student is expected to listen and accept the full authority and knowledge of the adult teacher. The “new teacher” serves as a dynamic link between “the prepared environment” and the child. Just as the prepared environment of the womb gives life to a baby, so will the specially “prepared environment” for each stage of the child’s development from infancy, childhood to adolescence.

The efa-dakar quality education input in Pulung Bulu Elementary school

Thus when the Pulung Bulu Elementary public school teachers were re-trained in 2001, mastering about 60 self-teaching materials for all subjects, making their guidance of 50 students per class effortless. This was an effective response to the UNESCO global evaluation of EFA after a decade in Dakar, Africa. It concluded that although enrollment increased, the quality of teaching was missing. We have resolved this with our on-going EFA-DAKAR pilot of Pulung Bulu Elementary School in Angeles, Pampanga.