Review of the Multi-grade Program in the Philippines

In pursuing Sustainable Development Goal number four of ensuring access to quality learning
opportunities of the most disadvantaged learners, SEAMEO INNOTECH worked with UNICEF to
support the Department of Education Multi-grade Program in the Philippine Education. MPPE aims to
democratize access to quality education in isolated, underserved, and sparsely populated areas. With 19 %
of public schools being multi-grade, this is an effort to evaluate multi-grade education in the country in
line with DEPED’s priority research agenda. The study applied mixed methods in collecting data, a
combination of casual comparative, survey and qualitative methods of evaluation were employed to
answer research questions pertaining to the status at DEPED’s multi-grade program and the situation and
practices of multi-grade schools in the Philippines.

The method samples were as follows, first data on test performance of students were retrieved
from DEPED’s database and subjected to statistical analysis to compare the mean performance scored of
multi-grade and mono-grade schools in LAPG and NAT for school year 2014 to 2015. Then a survey of
multi-grade schools and school divisions with multi-grade schools was conducted to get a general picture
of instructional and management practices human and material resources and challenges in problem areas
in these school. Data were collected from 4852 out of the 7273 identified multigrade schools and 127
school division from an initial 160 school divisions with multigrade schools. An additional 44 pairs of
multigrade and monograde schools were surveyed for their key performance indicators.

Finally, consultative focus group discussions with small groups of stakeholders and case studies
of selected multigrade schools involving site visits, classroom observations and interviews were carried
out in order to obtain more detailed qualitative descriptions multigrade personal narratives of experiences
and process of program participants, administrators and partner organizations and institutions. 131
multigrade implementers and stakeholders participated in national consultative workshops. 11 schools
from 10 schools divisions were selected for case study of good practices in multigrade schools and 284
multigrade implementers and stakeholders participated in FGD’s held during case study visits.

We now present the most prominent findings, over all MPPE implementations shows evidence of
partial to adequate compliance of program components with existing policies such compliance with
DEPED standard and policies has led to positive results in 9 areas of the program despite persisting
challenges. However, compliance varied according to local context and experiences of field
implementers. Adequate compliances was noted in classroom organizations, class program, capacity-
building and hiring of teachers and staff movement. This means that multigrade schools implement
acceptable classroom organizations in terms of: class size and grade combinations; adhere to suitable
class schedules; actively participate in training programs and are arranged by qualified teaching staff.

However, full compliance is hindered by the practices of combining kindergarten with upper
grades, lack of skills in localizing teaching and learning materials when MTB MLE resources are not
available, lack of preparation and induction of multigrade teachers. On the other hand, partial compliance
was seen in the areas of school plant, basic feature of the classroom including wash and school facilities,
teacher incentives, teaching and learning resources and fund allocation.

The Multigrade Program in Philippine Education (MPPE) has significantly contributed to the
Department of Education’s (DepEd) need to democratize access to education while ensuring its quality in
around 19% of public elementary schools in isolated, underserved, and sparsely populated communities in
the Philippines. In 2016, DepEd instituted its Basic Education National Research Agenda which identified
the review of the MPPE as a research priority to determine if it is serving its intended purposes and to
inform decisions for policy formulation and programme improvement. As a response, under a tripartite
agreement established in 2017. One of the components of the collaboration involves a program review to
present the overall status of the MPPE as a modality of delivering basic education. Its Summary Report
has been recently published on the INNOTECH website.

The review was undertaken to accomplish four specific objectives. First, it aims to assess how
well the MPPE was implemented in line with existing standards and policies of DepEd. Second, to
identify factors that contribute and hinder in achieving the goals of MPPE. The review also aims to
describe the contribution of the Multigrade program to student learning and school quality. Lastly, it
intends to examine the role of the program in improving access to quality education in disadvantaged
school communities.

Through a series of focus group discussions, national survey of multigrade schools and schools
divisions, case studies, comparative analysis, and documentary analysis, the study shows that the MPPE
implementation was generally compliant with existing standards and policies. However, the extent to
which multigrade schools complied with these policies vary due to the local context and experiences of
multigrade schools. A more flexible policy seems to be necessary to cater the unique conditions of the
communities where the multigrade program is implemented.

In terms of factors affecting the achievement of MPPE goals, innovative instructional strategies,
authentic assessments, parental and community engagement, the strong commitment of multigrade
teachers, and enabling school leadership were recognized as contributing factors. On the other hand,
achieving MPPE goals is said to be constrained by inadequate instructional support from school heads
and supervisors, issues concerning multiple roles assigned to multigrade teachers, and the absence of a
responsive monitoring and evaluation system specific for multigrade implementation.

Despite the challenges, the multigrade program proved its contribution to student learning.
Through the comparison of learners’ results in various assessment tests, multigrade learners are seen to be
performing at par with learners in a single grade classroom setting. Even outperforming some monograde
learners in assessment tests for language, mathematics, and social studies. The multigrade program was
seen as a practical solution to address barriers to education such as access and inclusion. It is a reasonable
learning delivery especially in remote, isolated, low-resourced, and underserved communities as teachers
provide different but appropriate activities to the learners based on their individual developmental level.
This allows teachers to empower and engage the learners by providing multiple ways to learn.

While the multigrade program has been proven as an effective learning delivery mode, there are
still a lot of areas that may be improved, particularly in policies and program implementation.