11/25/2020 Congestion in DepEd's K to 12

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Congestion in DepEd's K to 12
December 01, 2015

Congestion means overcrowding. In simple terms, there is too much in too little space or time.
To avoid congestion one can either increase space or time, or reduce whatever is taking space
or time. In introducing K to 12 to the Philippines, the Department of Education made the claim,
"...the sad state of basic education can be partly attributed to the congested basic education
curriculum." A closer examination of DepEd's K to 12, however, reveals not a decongestion, but
a reduction of instructional hours across the rst ten years of education.

Here are the changes for elementary school:

Above copied from K to 12 Toolkit

There is a reduction in both languages and mathematics of about 10 percent in instructional
time. Below are the changes in secondary school:
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11/25/2020 Congestion in DepEd's K to 12
time. Below are the changes in secondary school:

Above copied from K to 12 Toolkit

Here, the decrease in instructional hours is even greater. Science, for instance suffers a 33
percent reduction. Adding two years to basic education may indeed look good on paper as a
way of decongesting the curriculum. However, if the rst ten years of basic education lose one
third of instructional time, the senior high school years only mean catching up. One can think
in terms of tra c, reducing instructional hours is the same as closing roads. Is this really a
way to decongest?

A congested curriculum happens when too many subjects are squeezed into a short period of
time. When I was a high school student, I went through a special science curriculum:

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11/25/2020 Congestion in DepEd's K to 12

Above copied from K to 12 Toolkit

In my fourth year, I was taking two separate math subjects. One is an introduction to Calculus
and the other is Linear Algebra. I was also enrolled in two separate science subjects:
Advanced Chemistry and Advanced Physics. In addition to these, I had Social Studies, Pilipino,
English, Retail Merchandising, Citizen Army Training, and Physical Education. Without the
special science curriculum, other high schools only had one math and one science subject per
year. Thus, it is quite clear that the following is not true: "the sad state of basic education can
be partly attributed to the congested basic education curriculum." The reason is simple, the
curriculum is not congested.

Worse, DepEd's K to 12, with its instructional hours, has probably brought congestion. Here is a
recent post on a Facebook group page called PACE (Parents Advocacy for Children's
Education):

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11/25/2020 Congestion in DepEd's K to 12

Vargas is saying that there is a considerable amount of homework and school children are
forced to stay up all night. Vargas also laments that he is not hearing from other parents.
Vargas hopes that he is not the only one who is seeing this problem. Do parents still care
about the education and well-being of their children is perhaps one question in his mind.

And from Catholic educators, there is a recent news article from Davao Today:

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11/25/2020 Congestion in DepEd's K to 12

The math behind decongestion is really simple. And clearly, DepEd is using the term only as a
sound bite.

Commentaries Instructional Hours

Monnika Jacob October 15, 2020 at 9:22 PM

Thanks for sharing this great post.

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Angel C. de Dios, Ph.D., is currently an

associate professor of chemistry at
Georgetown University. At Georgetown, he
has been teaching General Chemistry since
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molecular spectroscopy and quantum
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education. He was a recipient of a CAREER
Award from the National Science
Foundation and the Georgetown College
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. A
member of PAASE (Philippine American
Academy of Science and Engineering), he
helped the residents of Paete, Laguna
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