Teach For the Philippines (TFP)

Selected out of over 21,000 applications from 191 countries, I am a member of the inaugural 2018 class of Obama Foundation Fellows. I am also a 2019 recipient of the national TOWNS (The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service Award) and the TOYM (Ten Outstanding Young Men and Women Award) presented by the President of the Republic of the Philippines, as well as the regional Asia Society Asia 21 Young Leaders Award. Despite the opportunities available to me after studying abroad, as a Filipina woman, I embraced the opportunity to return and give back to my country. Exposure showed me the possibilities dialogue with others can bring; inspiration to build better, to build different. In turn, I want to share this with others. I have been working in Philippine public education for over a decade. This dedication has resulted in 80,000 children and more than 300 teachers benefitting.

TFP is working to address the immediate challenges with the quality of national education, as demonstrated by poor student learning outcomes. The Philippines - a nation of 110 million people, of which 27 million are in the public-school system - ranked 79th of 79 countries worldwide in the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). 

TFP uses a 3-pronged approach with the goal of shifting the Philippine education system within our lifetimes by: (1) expanding the pool of new teachers undergoing a more relevant selection and training process; (2) identifying teachers within the system able to lead change from within and empowering them with the necessary skills; and (3) providing a pathway for former teachers to work in national/local government to influence policy making. TFP’s intervention has the capacity to impact 27 million students (through 900,000 teachers) with functional literacy and lifeskills requisite to breaking their family’s cycle of poverty.

Like many education systems in the Global South, the lack of investment in the quality of basic education in the Philippines means that many of our children are leaving school without fundamental literacy. In the Philippines, delivering instruction and ensuring learning for 27M students in basic education and supporting almost 900K teachers across an archipelago of over 7,600 islands is a daunting challenge that requires creative solutions that can be implemented and iterated quickly.

Prior efforts in the Philippine public education have been focused on access, rather than quality. While progress has been made in improving access, quality remains extremely poor (as evidenced by the latest PISA results (2018) that showed only 1 in 5 Filipino students achieved a minimum proficiency level (Level 2) in Overall Reading and Mathematical Literacy). Systems and structures that perpetuate this include the Philippines colonial legacy and an ever-changing political climate with short political cycles – where 90% of political leadership is dynastic. This is exacerbated by a large bureaucratic structure. Combined, these factors hinder fresh and innovative ideas, as well as the critical alignment needed to understand root problems and thereby change mindsets and traditions.

From the bottom-up: TFP works directly in public schools and with hundreds of public-school teachers and TFP Fellows who are trained in TFP’s Reading Remedial Program (RRP) which provides a systematic intervention for elementary level students who are struggling to read in basic English and Filipino. This school year, our internal monitoring showed 61% of students moved up at least one grade level in the schools assessed. In functional literacy in math, our internal numeracy assessments show significant increases in numeracy with some students improving by up to a grade level in 6 months. Additionally, teachers are taught how to implement TFP’s Batang Bayani (life skills) program in the school community. This program improves resilience for students, their parents, and our co-teachers.

From the top-down: Former teacher fellows who have spent two years immersed in the community are embedded directly within the government working with senior-level officials to support evidence-based policy making and implementation for millions of Filipino students. To-date, over 50% of our placed fellows were offered long-term roles which significantly builds the authorizing environment in government over time.

TFP’s interventions have the capacity for government adaptation at scale to impact 27M students and 900,000 teachers.

TFP directly impacts Filipino public school teachers by equipping them with tools and skills to benefit Filipino public school students mostly from families with a monthly income of 100-200 USD. In terms of the impact on people’s lives, education, even as basic as proficient numeracy and literacy skills, plays a pivotal role in fighting inequality through critical consciousness and reducing poverty via basic financial management. Poverty is so traumatic that college is too far a dream for many of the students we work with. Emotional first-aid, trauma/psychosocial training, and self-awareness are the foci of our teacher development curriculum. This school year we will reach 36 public schools located in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

After two years of training and experience working in public schools, TFP provides a concrete pathway for Fellows to work in national and local government agencies (such as the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Senate Education Committee, Congress Education Committee, Office of the Vice President and numerous Mayors of local governments and municipalities) to bridge the information gap between public schools and policy makers. Working with senior-level officials, the Ambassadors translate their collective experience into effective policies and programs that affect 27M public students.

Please see response to the question who does your project serve. 

In 1999, my mother and her best friend co-founded a non-profit organization focusing on education and functional literacy in Grade IV. I returned from overseas to help build the organization and contribute to my birth country. 

In 2012, after directly reaching over 1M students and over 25,000 teachers, we commissioned MIT Poverty Action Lab to undertake an impact measurement study. The results showed that our organization was able to improve, with statistical significance, functional literacy amongst the students it reached (which lasted from 6 months up to 1 year) after they completed our 30-day program. 

That same year we joined the Teach For All (TFA) network and transitioned the organization to a new one with a broader mission: to work together with the public education sector and other similarly minded NGOs to find ways to collectively provide all Filipino children with access to an education that is inclusive, excellent, and relevant. TFP and its current teacher training curriculum are built on over a decade of experience and knowledge. While we remain part of the TFA network, our adjustments to the programs (thanks to our continued evaluating and adaptations from lessons learned), have made us unique within the network.

Growing up hearing stories of grandparents involved in historical liberation movements against our colonizers, it was inevitable for me to also want to contribute in some small way to making our country better. I am privileged to have grown up in an environment that saw education as the key to becoming the best version of ourselves, and in my years working in public education, I have found that not all Filipino families view education similarly. I learned that getting Filipino families to believe in the liberating power of education required community engagement, collaboration, and ownership of change from within. Classrooms are the first touchpoint for improving our students and their parents’ psychosocial skills, and the cycles of poverty that exist in our classrooms exist because of inherent instabilities in attachment and other basic founding blocks of mental health and development. Our students and their parents suffer from the trauma of poverty; trauma prevents them from engaging fully with each other and with school, ultimately also with their lives - a learned helplessness. In my journey with TFP,  we changed our understanding of poverty, and sought training in emotional first aid, eventually making this the foundation of our teacher development curriculum.

Over the last decade, I have led a nationwide organization that engages almost 400 new and tenured Filipino public school teachers committed to working towards meaningful and positive change for our country. 

Externally, we completed a second Randomized Control Trial with the MIT Poverty Action Lab. Results show our teachers having "significant, positive impact in classrooms" up to almost one full standard deviation. Additionally, we ran numerous internal surveys across our communities, all pointing to the same large, statistically significant results. 

Operationally, in the TFA network, TFP is known for its unrelenting focus on data and top-quality management. We are recognized as part of the Top Quintile of network partners in employee engagement. 

TFP has been cited internationally for our partnership with the Israel Trauma Coalition and our belief that poverty is a form of trauma, which drives all the classroom work we do.

Finally, we are noted for 'diving deep,' rather than 'going wide.' Beyond employing teachers we are about seeding mindset change via exposure to our participants, ultimately empowering our communities to transform themselves. Consequently, participants are themselves transformed and learn to use the privilege of their education to hold the door of opportunity open for others.

After over a year of negotiations and with the training program designed around them, a prospective placement partner in the capital region pulled out of our partnership, a month before our teachers were set to be deployed. I had directed our team to seek a partnership with this capital city, and there had been every indication that it was going through up until the last minute. It was a huge blow to the organization; to our strategy, our operations plan, and more importantly, the team’s morale. Personally, it was also a hard lesson in humility: I admitted to failure before the team, and took accountability for the misjudgment. I asked for their help, and together, we sought alternative partners and delivered excellently. We were able to re-allocate our program to different high-need sites and we managed to pivot the organization’s strategy. To this day, I remain grateful for the team’s openness and perseverance despite having the odds stacked against us. Today, that year has become known as TFP’s first year to deploy to high-need areas outside of the National Capital Region.

Leading an organization during a global pandemic reinforced in me the value of clarity, certainty, and care for others. In March 2020, the Philippines’ major islands were put on lockdown, with no clear plan for the public health crisis that was worsening daily. For TFP, this meant that our teachers, deployed far from home, were stranded in place, with varying access to essentials and medical facilities. During this time, I was intent on taking action on things within our control: early payroll release to ensure access to basic needs, short-loop feedback surveys to encourage constructive ideas; and regular wellness check-ins to provide a safe space amid uncertainty. Having planned for such a scenario, the team was in a good place to provide our teachers with much needed reassurance that they are not left to fend for themselves; that they are cared for. The psychological certainty allowed them to continue caring for others: primarily, their students and their school community. Today, navigating this new normal is still a learning experience; but I am confident that I can lead my team to be our best selves who continue to act with integrity, respect, and kindness, especially during this time of ambiguity.

TFP’s three pronged approach to systems change for student learning makes us innovative and unique. 

1. We infuse the system with new talent (teacher fellows) who have the requisite content knowledge to arrest poor learning outcomes through near-term interventions that expand the pool of new teachers who have been through a more rigorous selection and training process. 

2. We identify teachers within the public system who are willing to embrace and lead change and empower them with the skills to do this. 

3. For our teacher fellows, after two years of training and experience working in public schools, we provide a concrete pathway to work in national and local government agencies (such as the Department of Education, Commission of Higher Education, Senate Education Committee, Congress Education Committee, Office of the Vice President and numerous Mayors of local governments and municipalities) to bridge the information gap between public schools and policy makers. Working with senior-level officials, they translate their collective experience into effective policies and programs that affect 27 million public students. 

This approach is underpinned by our understanding of trauma and its relationship to poverty. How it affects students, their families and their communities and the knock on consequences this has to everyone's lives. Ensuring emotional first aid is incorporated at the very core of our work ensures sustainable change that transcends beyond simply providing education.

TFP is founded on the practice of critical theory and built on the shoulders of Sa Aklat Sisikat, a Filipino reading program started in 1999. In 2012, after more than a decade of listening and working with public school communities across the country’s 7,641 islands (and with the results of an MIT Poverty Action Lab impact measurement study that showed that our program was able to improve, with statistical significance, functional literacy amongst the students it reached - which lasted from 6 months up to 1 year - after they completed our 30-day program), TFP was developed to better address the broader twin problems of improving educational outcomes for 27 million Filipino children and diversifying political voices in the Philippines.

Teach for the Philippines manages three programs, two of which deal directly with teacher formation. The organization recruits, trains, and licenses new teachers, giving them an opportunity to teach in public schools first. TFP also recruits and trains existing public school teachers who have between 7-20 years teaching experience; recognizing and building from assets and talent that already exist within the system. Teach for the Philippines’ teacher formation curriculum has been proven (through a second MIT-JPAL partnership) to improve student learning outcomes. The curriculum is successful because it’s foundations tackle community needs: addressing poverty as a key traumatic and dehumanizing experience that hinders learning and effective teaching, thus equipping teachers to work with students and their families not only through literacy and numeracy training, but also best practices in trauma awareness and emotional first-aid, psychosocial support, positive self-esteem, and improved child-adult relationships.

Finally, to bridge its work to the country’s broader system that serves 27 Million students and 900,000 teachers, TFP offers those who complete the two-year teacher formation and leadership program an extended one-year position directly assisting local and national government offices, thereby transforming a frontline teacher’s experience with community change into experience in policy—and enriching government decision-making with new voices and greater community alignment. Close to 50% of TFO alumni have entered the public sector and over 80% remain working towards education reform in the country.

TFP currently directly serves 12,000 public school students, 74 public school teachers and 15 technical assistants in education agencies in the country. At any given year, we serve about 10,000 learners, 100 teachers and 30 technical assistants in education agencies. The number of students we will be serving in the next five years would have reached more than 100,000 public school students, about 1,000 public school teachers and 300 education policy-makers in government. 

In five years, I hope to lead TFP towards

1. The conduct of a credible, third-party impact evaluation of our programs in education;

2. The design and implementation of comprehensive research around the impact of leadership development on the Philippines education system; and 

3. A strengthened partnership with the Department of Education for the replication of our model on teacher training across the public school system. 

Right now, the COVID-19 global pandemic is posing challenges to our ability to reach our stakeholders and roll out our programs in ways that we’ve proven to be impactful. We’ve had to creatively reimagine what our work will look like if physical deployment to high-risk areas become risky or insupportable. 

On the risks posed by physical deployment to high-need areas: We've taken measures to protect our teachers and staff as we prepare for physical deployment. This involves implementing a robust risk mitigation framework to guide decision-making, providing HMO coverage, COVID-19 testing and PPEs.

On creatively reimagining the delivery of our programs: We launched a Rapid Assessment Survey (RAS) initiative in order to inform programmatic adjustments we're making to deliver teacher capacity-building and learner support at this time. We're also preparing modules for household partners/guardians to help support education at home. Beyond that, we've partnered with IDInsight, an international research firm to conduct multiple rapid evaluation cycles that will help us identify and replicate solutions that work. 

TFP enters into multi-year partnerships with grant-giving bodies who invest in our mission and vision. 

Our impact is sustainable because (1) measurably improving foundational skills (like literacy and numeracy) and investments in early childhood education prevents continuing cycles of generational poverty, (2) close to 60% of our alumni get absorbed into full time positions in the government (3) because 10% of the teachers supported are already tenured professionals within the system, who have 20+ years of service before retirement, and (4) the relationships we continue to grow with the government on both a national and local level. We are continuing to obtain proof of concept and once this has been achieved, there is potential for the government to adapt our model and implement it at scale to the benefit of 27M students and 900,000 teachers. 

Collectively, the Asian Development Bank, Phoenix Foundation, Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Foundation and Firetree Trust have given us more than $ 2,800,000 in multi-year assistance/grants. 

For our current fiscal year we are aiming to secure a grant for $230,000.00 to fully support our programs and operations. 

Our budget for the current fiscal year is $1,600,000. 

TFP is working to prove our concept so that our model can be adapted by the government and rolled out nationwide. Raising the profile of our organization, benefitting from mentors and industry leaders who can help us produce the best possible model and attracting more funding to ensure we can improve our work and make our model adaptable in the best possible way ,as soon as possible, are all benefits we would appreciate receiving as a result of receiving The Elevate Prize. Furthermore sharing our success and learnings with The Elevate Prize network so that others can learn from our experience so that many more students and teachers can benefit throughout the world is very appealing to us.  

We seek support in developing a more robust fundraising strategy - one that allows us to better leverage our accomplishments and impact as an organization. We would also need support in making TFP visible to more public and private partners. Currently, our marketing and partnerships strategy is to acquire, engage, and retain stakeholders that will enable us to create a pool of partners who will champion the work that we do. The bigger the pool of champions that we have, the greater the brand recognition, and the better our chances not just at increasing our funding, but also in creating a network of advocates that will accelerate education reform in the Philippines. 

We also wish to share our success and lessons learned with others so that they can benefit from the vast knowledge we’ve gained over the last decade. This will enable us to indirectly reach more beneficiaries.