TAO stands for “Teachers’ Advancement for Optimum Well-Being”.  The project was spearheaded by the Philippine Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture then chaired by Senator Teresa Aquino-Oreta. It aimed to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the country’s educational system. Under this project, a nationwide survey was conducted to provide authentic and reliable data on teachers’ personal profiles, family backgrounds, educational and academic profiles, employment status, welfare benefits and working conditions.

Project TAO I targeted a total of 437,453 public elementary and secondary teachers all over the country. The survey produced a computerized baseline data on public school teachers’ status, welfare and working conditions broken down according to regions and school divisions.

Project TAO II

This is a continuation of the first phase of the Project TAO. Under Part 2 of the program, data generated from the nationwide survey were extracted and converted to a format suitable for making a regularly updatable MIS operational. The updating is being done by a network of trained DECS division office, which was given a computer, printer, modem, computer table and the DECS Personnel MIS software. Several teams were deployed to different regions nationwide to conduct training on the operation of the software.

This national database management system is now helping rationalize budgetary allocation for the educational system and is aiding legislators and policy makers in directly addressing issues and concerns affecting teachers’ employment status, welfare benefits and working conditions.