SOME 50 Korean teachers recently completed the first part of their training on English teaching facilitated by the Department of Education as part of an earlier exchange agreement in which the South Korean government donated computers for Philippine schools.

Education secretary Jesli Lapus said the 50 secondary school teachers — 20 of whom are also teaching Mathematics and Science—had a month-long training on communicative language teaching and the teaching of reading. They also completed three weeks of observation, practice teaching and after-class mentoring in eight schools in Metro Manila.

Lapu said the trainings were facilitated by DepEd’s National English Proficiency Program.

The English teaching training was part of an agreement inked by the Philippine government with the Busan Metropolitan City of Education which donated $6 million worth of computers for Philippine public high schools and state colleges and universities in exchange for the training of its teachers.

Lapus said the Korean teachers are expected to cascade what they learned to their fellow mentors in Korea. The same group will be back in February for further training based on evaluation results of the first phase of the training.