TL;DR: "The Teacher and the Profession" is the title of Article IV of the Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers, which is Board Resolution No. 435 of the Board for Professional Teachers, adopted under Republic Act No. 7836. It has five sections, and they cover the teacher's relationship to the profession itself rather than to learners, parents, colleagues or the State. The section with real operational bite is Section 3, which makes participation in the PRC's continuing professional education programme a Code obligation rather than a renewal chore. The article is often confused with the teacher education course commonly titled "The Teaching Profession," and with the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers, which is a DepEd framework and a different instrument entirely.
Most people meet this phrase as a heading. It appears in reviewers, in course outlines and in slide decks, usually as one line in a list of thirteen, and it is rarely read past the title. That is a shame, because the article is five short sections long and one of them is the source of an obligation that many licensed teachers assume comes only from renewal paperwork.
This guide works from the resolution text as posted by the Professional Regulation Commission. It covers what the article says section by section, what has changed underneath it, and how to keep it apart from the two things it is most often confused with.
Where Article IV Sits
The Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers is not a DepEd order. It is a resolution of the Board for Professional Teachers (BPT), adopted and promulgated as Board Resolution No. 435, series of 1997, under the authority of Article II of Republic Act No. 7836, the Philippine Teachers Professionalization Act of 1994. It is enforced through the professional teacher licence, not through the school.
The Code has 13 articles. Each one names a relationship, and Article IV names the profession itself.
| Article | Relationship |
|---|---|
| II | The teacher and the State |
| III | The teacher and the community |
| IV | The teacher and the profession |
| V | The teacher and the teaching community |
| VI | The teacher and higher authorities in the profession |
| VII | School officials, teachers and other personnel |
| VIII | The teacher and learners |
| IX | The teacher and parents |
| X | The teacher and business |
| XI | The teacher as a person |
Note the distinction between Article IV and Article V, which trips people in examinations. Article IV is about the profession as an institution: its standing, its standards, the teacher's own development. Article V, "The teacher and the teaching community," is about colleagues, credit for work, records left to a successor, and how criticism of a fellow teacher is handled. Our full guide to the Code of Ethics walks through all 13 articles and the enforcement mechanism.
What Article IV Actually Says
The article is five sections. Here they are with what each one does in practice.
| Section | Requirement | What it means day to day |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Actively help ensure teaching is the noblest profession, and manifest genuine enthusiasm and pride in teaching as a noble calling | Aspirational. Rarely the basis of a case on its own |
| 2 | Uphold the highest possible standards of quality education, make the best preparation for the career of teaching, and be at one's best at all times in practice | Preparation and practice, including pre-service preparation |
| 3 | Participate in the continuing professional education programme of the PRC, and pursue other studies to improve efficiency, enhance the prestige of the profession, and strengthen competence, virtues and productivity | The operational core of the article |
| 4 | Help, if duly authorised, to seek support for the school, but make no improper misrepresentation through personal advertisements or other questionable means | Fundraising and self-promotion |
| 5 | Use the teaching profession in a manner that makes it a dignified means for earning a decent living | Earning from teaching is expected; the standard is dignity |
Two of these are worth reading closely rather than skimming.
Section 3 is a standing obligation, not an event. It requires participation in the PRC's continuing professional education programme and the pursuit of other studies, and it gives the purpose: efficiency, prestige of the profession, competence, virtues, productivity, and being nationally and internationally competitive. A teacher who renews a licence without doing anything else has satisfied a PRC procedure, not necessarily this section.
Section 5 is permissive, and often misread as the opposite. It does not say a teacher should be indifferent to money. It says the profession is to be used in a way that makes it a dignified means for earning a decent living. Read together with Article X on business, the Code contemplates teachers earning legitimately, and constrains how.
Disclaimer: this is an explainer, not legal advice. For an actual complaint, disciplinary proceeding or licence question, deal directly with the PRC, your Schools Division Office, or counsel.
What Has Changed Underneath Section 3
Section 3 names the continuing professional education (CPE) programme of the PRC. That regime has been rebuilt since the Code was adopted, and this is where most reviewers go stale.
Republic Act No. 10912, the Continuing Professional Development Act of 2016, made CPD the framework requirement tied to renewal of the professional identification card, and it took effect with the issuance of its implementing rules in 2017. For professional teachers, the Professional Regulatory Board of Professional Teachers set a phased schedule of credit units after the law came in, and the PRC subsequently issued transition arrangements that directed CPD Councils to reduce the required units.
The practical consequence for anyone reading a reviewer: the number of units is the part most likely to be wrong. It has been set at different figures at different points, and the requirement is fixed by PRC resolution rather than by the Code. What Article IV, Section 3 requires does not depend on the number; the number only tells you what the PRC will accept at renewal. Confirm the current figure from the PRC itself, and see our PRC licence renewal guide for how compliance is declared in the process.
Two other developments sit alongside Section 3 without changing its text:
- Republic Act No. 11713, the Excellence in Teacher Education Act, approved 27 April 2022, strengthened the Teacher Education Council, institutionalised the National Educators' Academy of the Philippines and created a scholarship programme for teacher education students. It is the main statutory vehicle for the pre-service and in-service development Section 2 and Section 3 gesture at. Our NEAP training guide covers the in-service side.
- DepEd Order No. 42, s. 2017 adopted the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST), with 7 domains, 37 strands and four career stages, Beginning, Proficient, Highly Proficient and Distinguished. Domain 7 is Personal Growth and Professional Development, which is the closest DepEd analogue to Article IV, Section 3.
Three Instruments, Constantly Confused
This is the single most useful table in this guide for anyone reviewing.
| Instrument | Issued by | What it governs | Enforced through |
|---|---|---|---|
| Code of Ethics, Article IV (BPT Resolution No. 435) | Board for Professional Teachers, PRC | Professional and personal conduct of licensed teachers, preschool to secondary | The professional teacher licence |
| Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (DepEd Order No. 42, s. 2017) | DepEd | Teaching competencies across four career stages | Professional development and performance appraisal, including the RPMS and IPCRF |
| The Teaching Profession (course) | Teacher education institutions, under CHED programme standards | Coursework about the profession, its laws and its ethics | Grades and, indirectly, the licensure examination |
A fourth thing gets folded in by mistake: Republic Act No. 6713, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees. It binds public school teachers as government personnel, and it does not bind private school teachers. The Code of Ethics binds both.
How Article IV Shows Up in the LET
The licensure examination for teachers tests the Code in Professional Education, and Article IV is one of the more heavily used articles because its content is compact and unambiguous. What examinations tend to ask:
- Which article covers a given duty. The stem describes a situation and asks which relationship it falls under. Article IV versus Article V is the classic pair.
- The exact obligation in Section 3. Participation in the PRC programme and the pursuit of further study. Answers that mention only one are incomplete.
- The qualifier in Section 4. If duly authorised. A teacher soliciting support for the school without authority is the wrong answer even when the cause is good.
- The issuing body. The Board for Professional Teachers, not DepEd, not Congress.
If you are still working toward the licence, our guides on becoming a teacher in the Philippines and on the LET cover the route in, and the Code is worth reading in full rather than in summary before the examination.
Reading the Article Without Getting It Wrong
- Read the section, not the heading. Five sections, roughly a page. The PRC posts the Code in full.
- Do not quote a unit requirement from a reviewer. CPD unit counts are set by PRC resolution and have changed more than once.
- Keep Article IV and Article V apart. Profession versus colleagues. Most confusion in examinations is here.
- Do not treat the PPST as the Code. Different issuer, different purpose, different enforcement.
- Check whether an issuance you are relying on is current. A great deal of teaching material online still describes superseded DepEd orders as though they govern.
Ready to find the right school? Browse schools or explore more guides for Philippine educators on SchoolFinderPH.
Sources
- PRC — Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers, Board Resolution No. 435 (official PDF)
- Republic Act No. 7836 — Philippine Teachers Professionalization Act of 1994 (full text)
- Republic Act No. 10912 — Continuing Professional Development Act of 2016 (full text)
- Republic Act No. 11713 — Excellence in Teacher Education Act (full text)
- DepEd — DO 42, s. 2017: National Adoption and Implementation of the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (official PDF)
- SchoolFinderPH — The Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers, Explained
- SchoolFinderPH — PRC Licence Renewal Guide
