Gatchalian cites need for incentives for top quality teachers

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to offer incentives to top-performing teachers to teach in public schools where they are most needed.

Gatchalian is eyeing that DepEd comes up with a policy where more highly qualified teachers will be assigned to support disadvantaged students as they tend to underperform compared to their socio-economically advantaged counterparts.

“This way, learning will be the same across the board and no child should be left behind,” said Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate committee on basic education, arts and culture.

Targeting additional resources and more high-quality teachers to schools with a high concentration of low-performing and disadvantaged students will ensure that both advantaged and disadvantaged children will have equal learning experiences.

In Japan, for instance, officials in prefectural offices transfer effective teachers to underperforming schools so students can have equally capable instructors.