Does Teacher Licensure Matter? Basic Education Reform in the Philippine Education System

The Philippine government is currently investing on education reform through the Enhanced Basic Education Program or the K-12 Curriculum. The recent basic education program does not only call for academic excellence but also on higher teacher qualification. The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not teacher licensure matters in the implementation of the basic education reform in the Philippine Education system. Qualitative in orientation, this study utilized Phenomenology as its research design to capture the lebenswelt of college teachers who are distraught by the implementation of the new K-12 curriculum. Data were gathered through interviews and the analysis of data was empirically observed using the following steps: transcribing, coding, theming, verifying, and analyzing. The analysis of data in this phenomenological inquiry yielded three essential themes based on the respondents’ major statements pertaining to eligibility that makes the college teacher qualified to teach in the Senior High School of the new K-12 program, namely: full eligibility, provisionary eligibility, and temporary eligibility. The college teachers in this study accept and favor the Department of Education’s teaching licensure requirement. They believe that passing the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) is an important requirement before entering the classroom. The shared experiences of the participants of the study serve as a primordial source to raise awareness about the value and importance of teacher licensure to meet the high quality standards set by the profession and the hiring standard recognized by the government and public schools as an assurance of competence and quality.