LET: The Licensure Exam for Teachers and the Path from Education Degree to Classroom

What RA 7836 requires before you can teach

Republic Act 7836, the Philippine Teachers Professionalization Act of 1994, created the Board for Professional Teachers under the Professional Regulation Commission and set the legal requirement that anyone practicing the teaching profession in the Philippines hold a Certificate of Registration and a valid professional license. That license comes from passing the Licensure Examination for Teachers , commonly called LET. The law carries limited exceptions for certain higher education faculty and specific alternative teaching arrangements, but for anyone aiming at a regular elementary or secondary teaching post, LET is the gate you pass through.

Which degree qualifies you to sit LET

RA 7836 ties your eligibility to the level you want to teach. If you are aiming at preschool, you need a bachelor's degree in early childhood education. For elementary, you need a Bachelor in Elementary Education (BEEd).

For secondary, you need a Bachelor in Secondary Education (BSEd) with a major and minor field, or alternatively a bachelor's degree in arts or sciences plus a minimum number of professional education units taken on top of that degree. A vocational or technical-vocational track has its own version of the same rule: a bachelor's degree in your specialization plus a minimum number of professional education units.

Beyond the degree requirement, you need to be at least 18 years old, a Filipino citizen or covered under a reciprocity arrangement, of good moral character, and free of any conviction for an offense involving moral turpitude. These are baseline eligibility checks the Board for Professional Teachers applies before it lets you register for the exam at all.

How LET is structured

LET tests three components: General Education, Professional Education, and for secondary-level takers, a Specialization or majorship subject matching your BSEd major. RA 7836 leaves the exact passing computation to the Board's own resolutions rather than fixing a number in the statute itself, and the Board periodically updates that computation, so confirm the current passing requirement directly on prc.gov.ph before your exam date rather than relying on an old figure.

The law requires elementary and secondary LET to run as separate exams, given at least once a year. In practice, PRC has scheduled separate windows more than once a year, commonly in the first and second half of the year, though exact months shift, so check the official exam calendar for your specific target date rather than assuming a fixed month.

From passing LET to the classroom

Once you pass, you register with PRC for your Certificate of Registration and take your professional oath before you can call yourself a licensed teacher. For public school hiring, DepEd treats a valid PRC teaching license as a baseline eligibility requirement, then ranks applicants using additional factors such as LET rating, relevant teaching experience and trainings completed, on top of the license itself.

Private schools generally also require a PRC license for a regular or permanent teaching post, since RA 7836 applies to the profession broadly and not only to public school employment. That said, many private schools hire BEEd or BSEd graduates who have not yet passed LET into probationary, part-time or teaching-assistant roles while the graduate prepares for and sits the exam. If you have not passed yet, ask a school directly whether this kind of provisional arrangement is available rather than assuming you are shut out until you pass.

Provisional hiring in shortage subjects

DepEd sometimes hires non-education degree holders on a provisional basis for subject areas facing a teacher shortage, technical-vocational subjects in particular, while requiring the hire to complete education units and pass LET within a set timeframe to move from provisional to regular status. If you hold a non-education bachelor's degree and want to teach a specialized subject you have industry background in, ask DepEd's division office directly whether this kind of provisional route applies to your subject area rather than assuming a straight BSEd is your only way in.

Keeping your license active

A PRC teaching license is not a one-time credential. Like other PRC-regulated professions, registered teachers renew their license periodically and complete Continuing Professional Development (CPD) units in the years between renewals to stay compliant. Track your CPD credits as you go rather than scrambling to complete them close to your renewal window, since accredited CPD providers and seminar schedules fill up around peak renewal periods.

If you don't pass on your first attempt

RA 7836 does not set a cap on how many times you retake LET.

Many teachers sit the exam more than once before passing, and since your score breaks down by General Education, Professional Education and Specialization, review your specific breakdown after a failed attempt and focus your next review cycle on the component that pulled your score down rather than restudying everything evenly.