CODE OF ETHICS FOR PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS
Pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (e), Article 11, of
R.A. No. 7836, otherwise known as the Philippine Teachers Professionalization
Act of 1994 and paragraph (a), section 6, P.D. No. 223, as amended, the Board
for Professional Teachers hereby adopt the Code of Ethics for Professional
Teachers.
Teachers are duly licensed professionals who possesse
dignity and reputation with high moral values as well as technical and
professional competence in the practice of their noble profession, and they
strictly adhere to, observe, and practice this set of ethical and moral
principles, standards, and values.
Article I: Scope and Limitations
Section 1. The Philippine Constitution provides that all
educational institution shall offer quality education for all competent
teachers. Committed to its full realization, the provision of this Code shall
apply, therefore, to all teachers in schools in the Philippines.
Section 2. This Code covers all public and private school
teachers in all educational institutions at the preschool, primary, elementary,
and secondary levels whether academic, vocational, special, technical, or
non-formal. The term “teacher” shall include industrial arts or vocational
teachers and all other persons performing supervisory and /or administrative
functions in all school at the aforesaid levels, whether on full time or
part-time basis.
Article II: The Teacher and the State
Section 1. The schools are the nurseries of the future citizens
of the state; each teacher is a trustee of the cultural and educational
heritage of the nation and is under obligation to transmit to learners such
heritage as well as to elevate national morality, promote national pride,
cultivate love of country, instil allegiance to the constitution and for all
duly constituted authorities, and promote obedience to the laws of the state.
Section 2. Every teacher or school official shall actively
help carry out the declared policies of the state, and shall take an oath to
this effect.
Section 3. In the interest of the State and of the Filipino
people as much as of his own, every teacher shall be physically, mentally and
morally fit.
Section 4. Every teacher shall possess and actualize a full
commitment and devotion to duty.
Section 5. A teacher shall not engage in the promotion of
any political, religious, or other partisan interest, and shall not, directly
or indirectly, solicit, require, collect, or receive any money or service or
other valuable material from any person or entity for such purposes.
Section 6. Every teacher shall vote and shall exercise all
other constitutional rights and responsibility.
Section 7. A teacher shall not use his position or official
authority or influence to coerce any other person to follow any political
course of action.
Section 8. Every teacher shall enjoy academic freedom and
shall have privilege of expounding the product of his researches and
investigations; provided that, if the results are inimical to the declared
policies of the State, they shall be brought to the proper authorities for
appropriate remedial action.
Article III: The Teacher and the Community
Section 1. A teacher is a facilitator of learning and of the
development of the youth; he shall, therefore, render the best service by
providing an environment conducive to such learning and growth.
Section 2. Every teacher shall provide leadership and initiative
to actively participate in community movements for moral, social, educational,
economic and civic betterment.
Section 3. Every teacher shall merit reasonable social
recognition for which purpose he shall behave with honour and dignity at all
times and refrain from such activities as gambling, smoking, drunkenness, and
other excesses, much less illicit relations.
Section 4. Every teacher shall live for and with the
community and shall, therefore, study and understand local customs and
traditions in order to have sympathetic attitude, therefore, refrain from
disparaging the community.
Section 5. Every teacher shall help the school keep the
people in the community informed about the school’s work and accomplishments as
well as its needs and problems.
Section 6. Every teacher is intellectual leader in the
community, especially in the barangay, and shall welcome the opportunity to
provide such leadership when needed, to extend counselling services, as
appropriate, and to actively be involved in matters affecting the welfare of
the people.
Section 7. Every teacher shall maintain harmonious and
pleasant personal and official relations with other professionals, with
government officials, and with the people, individually or collectively.
Section 8. A teacher possesses freedom to attend church and
worships as appropriate, but shall not use his positions and influence to
proselyte others.
Article IV: A Teacher and the Profession
Section 1. Every teacher shall actively insure that teaching
is the noblest profession, and shall manifest genuine enthusiasm and pride in
teaching as a noble calling.
Section 2. Every teacher shall uphold the highest possible
standards of quality education, shall make the best preparations for the career
of teaching, and shall be at his best at all times and in the practice of his
profession.
Section 3. Every teacher shall participate in the Continuing
Professional Education (CPE) program of the Professional Regulation Commission,
and shall pursue such other studies as will improve his efficiency, enhance the
prestige of the profession, and strengthen his competence, virtues, and
productivity in order to be nationally and internationally competitive.
Section 4. Every teacher shall help, if duly authorized, to
seek support from the school, but shall not make improper misrepresentations
through personal advertisements and other questionable means.
Section 5. Every teacher shall use the teaching profession
in a manner that makes it dignified means for earning a decent living.
Article V: The Teachers and the Profession
Section 1. Teachers shall, at all times, be imbued with the
spirit of professional loyalty, mutual confidence, and faith in one another,
self-sacrifice for the common good; and full cooperation with colleagues. When
the best interest of the learners, the school, or the profession is at stake in
any controversy, teachers shall support one another.
Section 2. A teacher is not entitled to claim credit or work
not of his own, and shall give due credit for the work of others which he may
use.
Section 3. Before leaving his position, a teacher shall
organize for whoever assumes the position such records and other data as are
necessary to carry on the work.
Section 4. A teacher shall hold inviolate all confidential
information concerning associates and the school, and shall not divulge to
anyone documents which has not been officially released, or remove records from
files without permission.
Section 5. It shall be the responsibility of every teacher
to seek correctives for what may appear to be an unprofessional and unethical
conduct of any associate. However, this may be done only if there is
incontrovertible evidence for such conduct.
Section 6. A teacher may submit to the proper authorities
any justifiable criticism against an associate, preferably in writing, without
violating the right of the individual concerned.
Section 7. A teacher may apply for a vacant position for
which he is qualified; provided that he respects the system of selection on the
basis of merit and competence; provided, further, that all qualified candidates
are given the opportunity to be considered.
Article VI: The Teacher and Higher Authorities in the
Profession
Section 1. Every teacher shall make it his duty to make an
honest effort to understand and support the legitimate policies of the school
and the administration regardless of personal feeling or private opinion and
shall faithfully carry them out.
Section 2. A teacher shall not make any false accusations or
charges against superiors, especially under anonymity. However, if there are
valid charges, he should present such under oath to competent authority.
Section 3. A teacher shall transact all official business
through channels except when special conditions warrant a different procedure,
such as when special conditions are advocated but are opposed by immediate
superiors, in which case, the teacher shall appeal directly to the appropriate
higher authority.
Section 4. Every teacher, individually or as part of a
group, has a right to seek redress against injustice to the administration and
to extent possible, shall raise grievances within acceptable democratic
possesses. In doing so, they shall avoid jeopardizing the interest and the
welfare of learners whose right to learn must be respected.
Section 5. Every teacher has a right to invoke the principle
that appointments, promotions, and transfer of teachers are made only on the
basis of merit and needed in the interest of the service.
Section 6. A teacher who accepts a position assumes a
contractual obligation to live up to his contract, assuming full knowledge of
employment terms and conditions.
Article VII: School Officials, Teachers, and Other Personnel
Section 1. All school officials shall at all times show
professional courtesy, helpfulness and sympathy towards teachers and other
personnel, such practices being standards of effective school supervision,
dignified administration, responsible leadership and enlightened directions.
Section 2. School officials, teachers, and other school
personnel shall consider it their cooperative responsibility to formulate
policies or introduce important changes in the system at all levels.
Section 3. School officials shall encourage and attend the
professional growth of all teachers under them such as recommending them for
promotion, giving them due recognition for meritorious performance, and
allowing them to participate in conferences in training programs.
Section 4. No school officials shall dismiss or recommend
for dismissal a teacher or other subordinates except for cause.
Section 5. School authorities concern shall ensure that
public school teachers are employed in accordance with pertinent civil service
rules, and private school teachers are issued contracts specifying the terms
and conditions of their work; provided that they are given, if qualified,
subsequent permanent tenure, in accordance with existing laws.
Article VIII: The Teachers and Learners
Section 1. A teacher has a right and duty to determine the
academic marks and the promotions of learners in the subject or grades he
handles, provided that such determination shall be in accordance with generally
accepted procedures of evaluation and measurement. In case of any complaint,
teachers concerned shall immediately take appropriate actions, observing due
process.
Section 2. A teacher shall recognize that the interest and
welfare of learners are of first and foremost concern, and shall deal
justifiably and impartially with each of them.
Section 3. Under no circumstance shall a teacher be
prejudiced or discriminate against a learner.
Section 4. A teacher shall not accept favours or gifts from
learners, their parents or others in their behalf in exchange for requested
concessions, especially if undeserved.
Section 5. A teacher shall not accept, directly or indirectly,
any remuneration from tutorials other what is authorized for such service.
Section 6. A teacher shall base the evaluation of the
learner’s work only in merit and quality of academic performance.
Section 7. In a situation where mutual attraction and
subsequent love develop between teacher and learner, the teacher shall exercise
utmost professional discretion to avoid scandal, gossip and preferential
treatment of the learner.
Section 8. A teacher shall not inflict corporal punishment
on offending learners nor make deductions from their scholastic ratings as a
punishment for acts which are clearly not manifestation of poor scholarship.
Section 9. A teacher shall ensure that conditions contribute
to the maximum development of learners are adequate, and shall extend needed
assistance in preventing or solving learner’s problems and difficulties.
Article IX: The Teachers and Parents
Section 1. Every teacher shall establish and maintain
cordial relations with parents, and shall conduct himself to merit their
confidence and respect.
Section 2. Every teacher shall inform parents, through
proper authorities, of the progress and deficiencies of learner under him,
exercising utmost candour and tact in pointing out the learner's deficiencies
and in seeking parent’s cooperation for the proper guidance and improvement of
the learners.
Section 3. A teacher shall hear parent’s complaints with
sympathy and understanding, and shall discourage unfair criticism.
Article X: The Teacher and Business
Section 1. A teacher has the right to engage, directly or
indirectly, in legitimate income generation; provided that it does not relate
to or adversely affect his work as a teacher.
Section 2. A teacher shall maintain a good reputation with
respect to the financial matters such as in the settlement of his debts and
loans in arranging satisfactorily his private financial affairs.
Section 3. No teacher shall act, directly or indirectly, as
agent of, or be financially interested in, any commercial venture which furnish
textbooks and other school commodities in the purchase and disposal of which he
can exercise official influence, except only when his assignment is inherently,
related to such purchase and disposal; provided they shall be in accordance
with the existing regulations; provided, further, that members of duly
recognized teachers cooperatives may participate in the distribution and sale
of such commodities.
Article XI: The Teacher as a Person
Section 1. A teacher is, above all, a human being endowed
with life for which it is the highest obligation to live with dignity at all
times whether in school, in the home, or elsewhere.
Section 2. A teacher shall place premium upon
self-discipline as the primary principle of personal behaviour in all relationships
with others and in all situations.
Section 3. A teacher shall maintain at all times a dignified
personality which could serve as a model worthy of emulation by learners, peers
and all others.
Section 4. A teacher shall always recognize the Almighty God
as guide of his own destiny and of the destinies of men and nations.
Article XII: Disciplinary Actions
Section 1. Any violation of any provision of this code shall
be sufficient ground for the imposition against the erring teacher of the disciplinary
action consisting of revocation of his Certification of Registration and
License as a Professional Teacher, suspension from the practice of teaching
profession, or reprimand or cancellation of his temporary/special permit under
causes specified in Sec. 23, Article III or R.A. No. 7836, and under Rule 31,
Article VIII, of the Rules and Regulations Implementing R.A. 7836.
Article XIII: Effectivity Section 1. This Code shall take
effect upon approval by the Professional Regulation Commission and after sixty
(60) days following its publication in the Official Gazette or any newspaper of
general circulation, whichever is earlier.
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