TL;DR: "Pre-service" means before you enter the service, so pre-service teacher education is the degree stage, not the job stage. Republic Act No. 11713, the Excellence in Teacher Education Act approved 27 April 2022, defines pre-service teachers as "students enrolled in a teacher education degree program offered by Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs)" and pre-service teacher education programs as "undergraduate degrees and certificates of teaching covering mandatory curriculum and practicum specifications." Three bodies govern different pieces of it: CHED sets the degree content through CMO 74 to 83, s. 2017; DepEd, through the Teacher Education Council and the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers under DO 42, s. 2017, sets what a graduate is measured against and co-governs classroom placement; and the PRC Board for Professional Teachers controls the licence under RA 7836. The degree does not make you a teacher. The licence does.
If you have just been told to "report for your pre-service," or you are a school head being asked to take on pre-service teachers next term, the phrase is doing two different jobs at once. This guide separates the strict statutory meaning from the loose staffroom usage, names the issuance behind each part of the system, and is explicit about the parts that are decided locally rather than nationally.
The Formal Definition, and the Loose One
The precise version comes from Republic Act No. 11713, approved 27 April 2022. Its definitions section is unusually direct:
- Pre-service teachers are "students enrolled in a teacher education degree program offered by Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs)."
- Pre-service teacher education programs are "undergraduate degrees and certificates of teaching covering mandatory curriculum and practicum specifications."
- Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) are "higher education institutions (HEIs) recognized by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) offering teacher education degree programs."
- Professional standards are the "set of standards established and used by the Department of Education (DepEd) that set out expectations of professional practice for teachers and school leaders across their respective career stages."
Two things follow from that wording. A pre-service teacher is a student, not an employee, and the programme has to be run by a CHED-recognised institution for the label to apply.
The loose usage is different. In everyday school and office speech, "pre-service" gets attached to any preparation that happens before someone starts a job: pre-service orientation for new hires, pre-service training for non-teaching staff, pre-service exposure for any profession at all. That usage is not wrong as English, but it is not what RA 11713 is regulating. If a document, a memorandum or a job posting uses the phrase, check which sense is intended before acting on it.
Who Governs Which Part
This is the part people get wrong most often, because no single agency owns the whole pipeline.
| Stage | Governed by | Key issuance |
|---|---|---|
| The degree curriculum | Commission on Higher Education | CMO Nos. 74 to 83, s. 2017 |
| Standards for teacher quality | DepEd, through the Teacher Education Council | DO No. 42, s. 2017 (PPST) |
| Council mandate over teacher education | Congress, through the TEC | RA No. 11713 (2022) |
| Classroom placement for practicum | DepEd and CHED, jointly | DO No. 3, s. 2007, updated by the joint CHED-DepEd policy of 2021 |
| Licensure | PRC Board for Professional Teachers | RA No. 7836, as amended by RA No. 9293 |
Under Section 8 of RA 11713, the Teacher Education Council sets basic requirements for teacher education programmes and monitors compliance, designates Teacher Education Centers of Excellence, maintains the list of TEIs in coordination with CHED, and is charged with strengthening the link between pre-service and in-service teacher education. The Council is chaired by the DepEd Secretary, with the CHED Chairperson as vice-chair, which is the structural reason DepEd has a say in a stage that happens inside colleges.
What the Degree Actually Contains
Take the Bachelor of Elementary Education as the worked case, because CHED Memorandum Order No. 74, series of 2017 sets it out line by line. The programme totals 182 units:
| Component | Units |
|---|---|
| General education courses | 36 |
| Professional education courses | 42 |
| Major courses | 57 |
| Elective | 3 |
| Mandated courses (Physical Education and NSTP) | 14 |
| Total | 182 |
Inside the professional education block sits the experiential learning spine, which CMO 74 describes as "a year-long engagement that supports authentic experiential learning from field study and actual classroom immersion of the prospective teachers." It runs to 12 units, split as Field Study 1 (3 units), Field Study 2 (3 units) and Practice Teaching or Teaching Internship (6 units).
The parallel programme standards for secondary teaching sit in CMO No. 75, s. 2017, and the specialised programmes each have their own order in the same 2017 batch. Our full breakdown of that batch is in the teacher education courses guide, with programme-level detail in the BEEd guide and the BSEd guide.
One drafting artefact is worth knowing about. CMO 74 states that "the NCBTS domains shall be used as guideposts" for the experiential learning course. The National Competency-Based Teacher Standards were superseded by the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers under DO 42, s. 2017, signed in the same year the CMOs were issued. In practice, colleges and cooperating schools now map the practicum against PPST indicators. The older wording survives in the text of the order.
Field Study Versus Teaching Internship
These are not interchangeable, and confusing them causes real scheduling problems.
Field Study 1 is the first experiential course. CMO 74 describes it as immersion in an actual classroom situation "where direct observation of teaching learning episodes that focuses on the application of educational theories learned in content and pedagogy courses will be made," with emphasis on learner behaviour, motivation, teaching strategies, classroom management and assessment. Three units, three contact hours per week, portfolio required.
Field Study 2 continues from it and moves the student from watching to helping: assisting in limited teaching-learning activities, assessment of learning, preparation of instructional materials and classroom routines. Three units, three contact hours per week. The order says an action research "shall be encouraged to start in this course."
Teaching Internship is a different animal. CMO 74 describes it as "a one semester full time teaching internship in basic education schools using a clinical approach under the mentorship of a cooperating teacher," at 40 hours per week, with no academic units allowed alongside it, and Field Study 1 and 2 as prerequisites. A teaching portfolio and the completed action research are required outputs.
That last constraint is the one students underestimate. Internship semester is a full working week in a school, not a heavy class load with school visits attached.
Where You Get Placed, and Why It Varies
Deployment used to be governed on the DepEd side by DepEd Order No. 3, s. 2007, "Guidelines in the Deployment of Pre-Service Teachers on Experiential Learning: Field Study and Practice Teaching." That order set the shape still recognisable today: cooperating schools have to be selected rather than assumed, cooperating teachers act as mentors and coaches, and student teachers do not teach independently without the school head signing off.
In 2021 DepEd and CHED issued a joint memorandum order on the policies and guidelines on the deployment of pre-service teachers for Field Study and Teaching Internship, consolidating the DepEd and CHED sides into one policy and adding a model memorandum of agreement between the cooperating school, the DepEd offices and the teacher education institution, plus a practical manual of tools. DepEd announced it publicly on 5 November 2021.
Here is the part to take seriously: the operative details are local. The memorandum of agreement is signed between a specific TEI, a specific schools division office and specific cooperating schools. Which schools are on the accepting list, how many interns a class or a school will take, whether placement is in-campus at a laboratory school or off-campus in a public school, when the paperwork must be filed, and what documentary requirements the division adds on top are all decided at division and school level. Two students in neighbouring divisions can face genuinely different processes and both be following policy. Confirm with your college supervisor and the receiving division office; do not generalise from a friend in another region.
What Comes After
Finishing the degree ends the pre-service stage. It does not make you a teacher in the legal sense. RA 7836 requires a certificate of registration and a valid professional licence from the PRC before anyone may practise as a professional teacher, and the examination is administered by the Board for Professional Teachers. The route from graduation through the licensure exam to a DepEd or private school post is covered in our guide to becoming a teacher, with exam-specific detail in the LET guide.
Once you are hired, the in-service side takes over, and that is where the National Educators Academy of the Philippines and DepEd training programmes come in. See our NEAP teacher training guide for how continuing professional development is structured on the other side of the line.
Disclaimer: programme requirements, deployment procedures and documentary requirements change through CHED and DepEd issuances and are further specified at regional and division level. Verify current requirements with your teacher education institution and the relevant schools division office before making decisions.
Choosing where to take your teaching degree? Browse schools and compare teacher education programmes, tuition and reviews across the Philippines on SchoolFinderPH.
Sources
- LawPhil — Republic Act No. 11713, Excellence in Teacher Education Act (approved 27 April 2022)
- CHED — CMO No. 74, s. 2017, Policies, Standards and Guidelines for the Bachelor of Elementary Education (BEEd) (official PDF)
- CHED — 2017 CHED Memorandum Orders, including CMO 74 to CMO 83
- DepEd — DO 42, s. 2017, National Adoption and Implementation of the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers
- DepEd — DO 3, s. 2007, Guidelines in the Deployment of Pre-Service Teachers on Experiential Learning: Field Study and Practice Teaching
- DepEd — DepEd-CHED policy reinforces field study, teaching internships of pre-service teachers (5 November 2021)
- LawPhil — Republic Act No. 7836, Philippine Teachers Professionalization Act of 1994
- CHED — CMO No. 75, s. 2017, Policies, Standards and Guidelines for the Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSEd) (official PDF)
