The Department of Education (DepEd) has announced that it will deploy at least 200 Filipino teachers to teach English in Spain every year.
Accordingly, Education Secretary Leonor Briones has met with Spanish Ambassador to the Philippines Jorge Moragas in a courtesy call last August to “renew ties for the promotion and teaching of Spanish language and culture in the Philippines.”
200 English Teachers to be Deployed to Teach in Spain Annually – DepEd
According to Briones, Moragas shared Spain’s intention to “continuously work” with the Philippine government through the agency “by enhancing collaboration on teacher training” through their Language Assistance Program (LAP), as shared in a report by the Manila Bulletin.
“Through this program, Spain shall hire around 200 teachers every year to teach the English language in Spain,” DepEd said.
The Department also noted that according to Moragas, Spain regularly conducts training for LAP participants, and “they aim to partner with DepEd so that these seminars would be organized and certified by the Department.”
Furthermore, the DepEd shared that the Spanish government had suggested to come up with a pilot test for 10 individuals from 2020 to 2021, and a possible memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the partnership.
DepEd further note that as per Moragas, the country’s education department should send teachers to Spain for cultural exchange “since the Philippines lacks Spanish teachers”.
For her part, Briones remains open and upbeat about the proposals offered by the Spanish government.
Meanwhile, the education department noted that both parties have agreed to review, update details, and finalize the memorandum of cooperation on the Special Program in Foreign Languages (SPFL), which the department expects to be renewed and approved soon.
Regarding this topic, Briones commented that one of the agenda of the courtesy call was to discuss the possibility of teaching Spanish as one of the seven languages for high school students.
She said, “I’ve read the MOU, and I would be very happy to sign it now because it is an extension of what we have done before.”
The SPFL is one of the special programs currently being offered by DepEd to “cater to multiple intelligences of the learners and to help equip them with the necessary skills to meaningfully engage in a linguistically and culturally diverse world.”
The program is currently being offered to Grades 7 to 10 learners who have demonstrated competence in Filipino and English, and are capable of learning another foreign language.
Aside from offering Spanish lessons, DepEd has already implemented SPFL classes in Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Korean, in select public schools in the country.
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