Dr. Jestoni P. Babia, President of City College of Cagayan de Oro, played a key role as a member of the Joint Teacher Education Council (TEC) and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Technical Working Group (TWG) during the Teacher Education Quality Assurance (QA) Reframing Workshop 1: Fieldwork Design held on April 28–30, 2026, in Manila, Philippines.
The workshop forms part of the ongoing national initiative to refine and strengthen the National Quality Assurance Framework for Teacher Education (NQAF-TE), with a focus on aligning quality assurance systems with current educational demands and institutional realities.
Dr. Babia was invited to lead key segments of the workshop, including the presentation of objectives and the facilitation of breakout sessions involving accreditation bodies. These sessions enabled stakeholders to critically examine the proposed framework, provide insights, and consolidate recommendations for enhancing both the conceptual model and fieldwork design.
The three-day workshop gathered representatives from CHED regional offices, accrediting agencies, teacher education institutions, and partner organizations. Discussions centered on refining the framework’s structure, validating its components, and designing a fieldwork approach that will gather data from diverse educational contexts across the country.
The initiative aims to transition the country’s teacher education quality assurance system from a predominantly compliance-based model to a more developmental, evidence-based, and data-driven framework. It also seeks to ensure that policies and standards are responsive to institutional performance, learner outcomes, and emerging educational challenges.
As a college president and national TWG member, Dr. Babia’s participation highlights the critical role of higher education leaders in bridging institutional practice and national policy development. His involvement underscores City College of Cagayan de Oro’s growing contribution to shaping educational reforms at the national level.
The outputs of the workshop are expected to inform subsequent validation activities and contribute to the finalization of the NQAF-TE, which will serve as a guiding framework for improving teacher education quality across the Philippines.
