Current Issues in Curriculum Development in the Philippines

1. 1. Current Issues in Curriculum Development in the Philippines K to 12: Its Implications across the
Curriculum Focused on Private High School -- Miriam College High School Submitted by: Atienza,
Grace Ella Marie E. Bitang, Nica Vanissa Saguano, Angelica A. Sudario, Vanessa Tandoc, Louise Ann
F. III- BS CDS Submitted to: Prof. Mary Francis Therese Pelias, M.A.
2. 2. I. Current Issue or Trends Recently, we have adapted the worldwide trend on education and that
is having 12 years of basic education. The additional 2 years reinforced in the education system is
one of the biggest issues faced by the Philippine government. The implementation of K-12 widely
affects education since it focuses on maximizing the students’ capacities and potentials upon
graduating from high school. In order to execute all these changes, Philippine education system
needed to make adjustments and policies that primarily subject to the improving the quality of our
graduates. Specifically in Senior high school, one of the issues that has been circulating is the
change in their curriculum design. The enhanced curriculum has captured the attention of
students because schools are already implementing more distinct and specific programs to be
offered to their students from the Junior and Senior levels. One of the goals of the K-12 program is
for the students to be fully equipped upon graduating from highschool. In order to meet this goal,
schools executed a lot of adjustments in their curriculum. The present senior high school
curriculum is much more complex compared from the past. Now, the students were asked to
choose a track that they will specialize on. All of them need to take required subjects and complete
a certain number of hours. The other subjects that they will take will depend on the track that they
have chosen. If we look into it, we can notice that it is like a college set up that we are used to in
our country. Since there were changes in the overall curriculum, issues on resources have
consecutively risen. Teachers, the major human resources in education, are expected to have
mastery in the subject they teach and be competent at the same time. Other issues
3. 3. also mentioned that teachers in senior high school should now have a master’s degree or at
least have taken up masteral units. SHS teachers are expecting an increase in their salaries since
the qualification from them also increased. Some schools just hire from their own faculty or from
their industry partners. Another issue is where the schools, especially the public schools, will get
their funds to implement these changes. There were complaints that only a few public schools
have received a certain amount of money from the government to acquire facilities and equipment
needed for the implementation. One of the concerns of the school is where they will get learning
modules for the new curriculum of senior high school. The Department of Education has not yet
developed instructional material for the new curriculum and they just get mostly from online
resources. Aside from the problems mentioned, the implementation of K-12 also needs to monitor
and provide training programs for the teachers and guidance counsellors who are responsible for
collaborating with the Junior and Senior high school students. Since there will be specialized
tracks offered in Senior high school, all the teachers must have basic knowledge regarding the new
subjects that the schools will offer, specifically for the technical-vocational subject that the
students will be exposed to. The quality of the information that these teachers will impart to their
students can be improved if the government highlights the importance of being exposed to
developing new skills from these core subjects through undergoing training and seminars.
Furthermore, the changes mandated in the schools will also affect the performances of the
guidance counsellors who are tasked to manage the participation of each student in taking the
course program
4. 4. offered by the school. It is their role to make sure that the students engage themselves in the
tracks they think they excel in and with that, guidance counsellors should be well-oriented and
enlightened about these changes. Just like the teachers, they should also be monitored through
 these training programs. Employment issues are also raised in line with this major topic. Looking
at the present situation in our society, the college graduates are expected to apply in the field
where they have majored in. With this, the students should be able to establish connections with
companies or industries that will help them get into their appropriate fields. Analyzing this matter,
if there will be graduates from the Senior high school and college, will the local government units
and other companies be able to provide opportunities for all of them? Is there an assurance that all
the graduates will work on the respective fields they have acquired experiences from? In addition,
another problem arises regarding the quality of employees the companies would hire for
application. The competition between the Senior high school and college graduates will increase
due to the full implementation of the K-12 curriculum. Since the high school graduates will also
have access to employment, in what way will these companies base their approval for the
applicants? Are the acquired experiences of the high school graduates equally match the
experiences of those who graduated in college? Whose quality of work will appear to be more
precise? Based on what the researchers have gathered, it is an advantage for the high school
students to have earlier first-hand experiences regarding their specialization. But if the companies
will compare the number of years both graduates were exposed to in a specific field of study,
5. 5. the college students will appear to be more familiar and oriented with the whole application of
what they have learned since they had undergone several years of training in their course program.
Moreover, we should foresee the students who are not going to be fortunate enough to take the
financial expenses that have been brought by the additional 2 years of basic education. The longer
education cycle would be an added burden to households and would later on translate to higher
dropout rates. While the government can provide free public education, the allowances,
transportation, school supplies, and other schooling expenses are still to be shouldered by the
parents. According to some surveys, the number of out-of-school-youths have increased and this
can get worse if the government keeps on setting aside all the issues especially now that the K-12
has been in the process of full implementation. II. Realities of the K to 12 Implementation To know
how the implementation of K to 12 in the Philippines affected the high school department of
Miriam College, the researchers interviewed Dr. Edizon Fermin, the Miriam College high school
principal. He is also a member of the National Basic Education commission for the Catholic
Education Association of the Philippines.
6. 6. A. Changes Dr. Fermin stated that it is crucial most especially in the set of changes that Miriam
College High School had to facilitate, were the review of the curriculum and its compliance with
the minimum requirements of the Department of Education’s curriculum guides for K-12.
However, as early as s.y. 2011-2012 Miriam College High School started aligning the curriculum
competencies across learning areas and gave focus on looking at the articulation of entry and exit
competencies with the middle school. He also indicated that currently grade school has grade 6,7
and 8, traditionally grade 6 is the exit point for the six year elementary program and grades 7 and 8
is the first two years of Junior High School. Grades 9 and 10 are now the the last two years of junior
high school, traditionally it is first and second year program and Miriam College High School is
offering Senior High School which is Grades 11 and 12 next year, In line with these, they need to
recalibrate the kind of content it’s covering; There will be no Philippine history because it covered
in grade 7, they are concerned with Science and Math courses, and no much to worry about
Communication Arts because they are ahead. Dr. Fermin shared that he is excited about the
changes that would be the offerings that would take place in grades 11 and 12 because it is a Track
Oriented Curriculum. With regards to the said curriculum, they are offering academic strengths
where the students may choose a particular concentration, whether it’s in STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Humanities and Social Studies or Business,
Accountancy and Management.
7. 7. The other adjustment that Dr. Fermin put in the picture was the pedagogy. The way faculty
members give instruction. He highlighted that it is highly discipline based. Therefore, they need
faculty members to be trained in terms of thinking, science and mathematics etc., because of the
strict highly procedures that one must get three majors and know how to connect learning areas
so that the approach would be multidisciplinary. B. What have been the successes and challenges
in its implementation? Miriam College is one of the few schools that are a K to 12 models school.
They are part of the research and development project that is being done by the government for
SHS. Also the Miriam College offers Grade 7 already even before the law has been passed that’s
why when the K to 12 program has been implemented, they only added one more year in high
school. When the law has been passed, they were very quick in announcing their readiness and the
compatibility of the one that is being required by the DepEd because they already have seniors
electives program which are some of the courses that are being offered in the college that is also
being offered in the high school which can help them decide on what track they want. This made it
easy for the school to distinguish what is most useful to their students. The shifting of the
curriculum was a challenge for them because there will be certain existing school goals that may
not be covered by the state goals. It was a struggle for them since for the school the vision, mission
and goals should still be instilled to the students and should remain no matter what changes
would happen. It’s a challenge for
8. 8. them to connect the national curriculum without losing the school's vision, mission and goals.
They included steps that will equalize the K to 12 program and their own existing program. Also the
strict obligatory dimension of the curriculum was a challenge for them but they already found the
solution for this which is the RA 10533 Section 10. 2 Rule 2 states that “The curriculum shall be
flexible enough to enable and allow schools to localize, indigenize and enhance the same based on
their respective educational and social contexts.” As what is said, schools can be flexible in their
curriculum. This helped them to solve this challenge. Lastly informing the stakeholders, it’s a
challenge since it would need a series of orientation from policy makers, students and most
specially the parents who worried a lot about this program but as of now they are already in the
process of it. C. What are the plans to address the foreseen challenges? According to Dr. Fermin,
the implementation of the K-12 curriculum in Miriam College Highschool was “not much of a big
struggle”. He clearly stated that the main solution in this matter is the continuous planning and
coping with the development process, which each school in the Philippines not only for MCHS,
should be able to do. Every year, the high school council facilitates curriculum development
workshops for the teachers to enhance their teaching skills and strategies. They have also included
conceptualization of the full transition to K to 12 in the teachers’ workshop as an adjustment
brought by K to 12’s implementation. Aside from these, to respond to the questions and inform the
9. 9. stakeholders of the school community, they have been conducting orientations. First, they had
to meet up with the policymakers to collaborate and discuss the changes that would take effect.
Second, they gave orientations to the students. More importantly, as Dr. Fermin emphasized, they
also held orientations for the parents since they are the ones who, at first, were thinking about the
shift of the curriculum as something to be worried about. Last December, the high school
department conducted another orientation about the new senior high school program and its
procedures. They called it the Career Mentoring Day. III. Reaction A lot of issues were raised about
the implementation of K-12 in the Philippine education system. Many are worrying that it might
not be effective. Others think that it won’t make any improvement. But in the case of Miriam
College High school, they are looking positively for its results. Upon hearing both facts and
opinions from a number of resources, the researchers think that its implementation can result in
large benefits to the society of the Philippines and its citizens. There will be problems because of
the changes in the curriculum but the researchers believe that Filipinos will cope up soon. They’ll
learn, in no time, to make the best out of the skills they’ll acquire through the changes. Better
 education system will bring better and more responsible citizens. Better citizens will lead to a
better country.

Issues Regarding the Educational System

When it comes to influence, the educational system of the Philippines has been affected immensely by the
country's colonial history including the Spanish period, American period, and Japanese rule and occupation.
Although having been significantly influenced by all its colonizers with regard to the educational system, the
most influential and deep-rooted contributions arose during the American occupation (1898); it was during
this aforementioned period that 1. English was introduced as the primary language of instruction and 2. A
public education system was first established - a system specifically patterned after the United States school
system and further administered by the newly established Department of Instruction. Similar to the United
States of America, the Philippines has had an extensive and extremely inclusive system of education
including features such as higher education.

The present Philippine Educational system firstly covers six years of compulsory education (from grades 1 to
6), divided informally into two levels - both composed of three years. The first level is known as the Primary
Level and the second level is known as the Intermediate Level.

However, although the Philippine educational system has extensively been a model for other Southeast
Asian countries, in recent years such a matter has no longer stood true, and such a system has been
deteriorated - such a fact is especially evident and true in the country's more secluded poverty-stricken
regions.
Nationwide the Philippines faces several issues when it comes to the educational system.

Quality of Education
First of which, is the quality of education. In the year 2014, the National Achievement Test (NAT) and the
National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) results show that there had been a decline in the quality of
Philippine education at the elementary and secondary levels. The students' performance in both the 2014
NAT and NCAE were excessively below the target mean score. Having said this, the poor quality of the
Philippine educational system is manifested in the comparison of completion rates between highly urbanized
city of Metro Manila, which is also happens to be not only the country's capital but the largest metropolitan
area in the Philippines and other places in the country such as Mindanao and Eastern Visayas. Although
Manila is able to boast a primary school completion rate of approximately 100 percent, other areas of the
nation, such as Eastern Visayas and Mindanao, hold primary school completion rate of only 30 percent or
even less. This kind of statistic is no surprise to the education system in the Philippine context, students who
hail from Philippine urban areas have the financial capacity to complete at the very least their primary
school education.

Budget for Education

The second issue that the Philippine educational system faces is the budget for education. Although it has
been mandated by the Philippine Constitution for the government to allocate the highest proportion of its
government to education, the Philippines remains to have one of the lowest budget allocations to education
among ASEAN countries.

Affordability of Education
The third prevalent issue the Philippine educational system continuously encounters is the affordability of
education (or lack thereof). A big disparity in educational achievements is evident across various social
groups. Socioeconomically disadvantaged students otherwise known as students who are members of high
and low-income poverty-stricken families, have immensely higher drop-out rates in the elementary level.
Additionally, most freshmen students at the tertiary level come from relatively well-off families.

Drop-out Rate (Out-of-school youth)

France Castro, secretary of Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), stated that there is a graved need to
address the alarming number of out-of-school youth in the country. The Philippines overall has 1.4 million
children who are out-of-school, according to UNESCO's data, and is additionally the only ASEAN country that
is included in the top 5 countries with the highest number of out-of-school youth. In 2012, the Department
of Education showed data of a 6.38% drop-out rate in primary school and a 7.82% drop-out rate in
secondary school. Castro further stated that "the increasing number of out-of-school children is being
caused by poverty. The price increases in prices of oil, electricity, rice, water, and other basic commodities
are further pushing the poor into dire poverty." Subsequently, as more families become poorer, the number
of students enrolled in public schools increases, especially in the high school level. In 2013, the Department
of Education estimated that there are 38, 503 elementary schools alongside 7,470 high schools.

Mismatch
There is a large mismatch between educational training and actual jobs. This stands to be a major issue at
the tertiary level and it is furthermore the cause of the continuation of a substantial amount of educated yet
unemployed or underemployed people. According to Dean Salvador Belaro Jr., the Cornell-educated
Congressman representing 1-Ang Edukasyon Party-list in the House of Representatives, the number of
educated unemployed reaches around 600,000 per year. He refers to said condition as the "education gap".

Brain Drain
Brain Drain is a persistent problem evident in the educational system of the Philippines due to the modern
phenomenon of globalization, with the number of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who worked abroad at
any time during the period April to September 2014 was estimated at 2.3 million. This ongoing mass
emigration subsequently inducts an unparalleled brain drain alongside grave economic implications.
Additionally, Philippine society hitherto is footing the bill for the education of millions who successively spend
their more productive years abroad. Thus, the already poor educational system of the Philippines indirectly
subsidizes the opulent economies who host the OFWs.

Social Divide
There exists a problematic and distinct social cleavage with regard to educational opportunities in the
country. Most modern societies have encountered an equalizing effect on the subject of education. This
aforementioned divide in the social system has made education become part of the institutional mechanism
that creates a division between the poor and the rich.

Lack of Facilities and Teacher Shortage in Public Schools

There are large-scale shortages of facilities across Philippine public schools - these include classrooms,
teachers, desks and chairs, textbooks, and audio-video materials. According to 2003 Department of
Education

Undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz, reportedly over 17 million students are enrolled in Philippine public schools,
and at an annual population growth rate of 2.3 per cent, about 1.7 million babies are born every year which
means that in a few years time, more individuals will assert ownership over their share of the (limited)
educational provisions. To sum it up, there are too many students and too little resources. Albeit the claims
the government makes on increasing the allocated budget for education, there is a prevalent difficulty the
public school system faces with regard to shortages. Furthermore, state universities and colleges gradually
raise tuition so as to have a means of purchasing facilities, thus making tertiary education difficult to access
or more often than not, inaccessible to the poor. However, it is worth taking note of what the Aquino
administration has done in its five years of governance with regard to classroom-building - the number of
classrooms built from 2005 to the first half of the year 2010 has tripled. Additionally, the number of
classrooms that were put up from the year 2010 to February 2015 was recorded to be at 86,478,
significantly exceeding the 17,305 classrooms that were built from 2005 to 2010 and adequate enough to
counterbalance the 66,800 classroom deficit in the year 2010.

In President Aquino's fourth state of the nation address (SONA), he spoke of the government's achievement
of zero backlog in facilities such as classrooms, desks and chairs, and textbooks which has addressed the
gap in the shortages of teachers, what with 56,085 new teachers for the 61, 510 teaching items in the year
2013. However, the data gathered by the Department of Education shows that during the opening of classes
(June 2013), the shortages in classrooms was pegged at 19, 579, 60 million shortages when it came to
textbooks, 2.5 million shortages with regard to chairs, and 80, 937 shortages of water and sanitation
facilities. Furthermore, 770 schools in Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao were considered overcrowded. The
Department of Education also released data stating that 91% of the 61, 510 shortages in teachers was filled
up alongside appointments (5, 425 to be specific) are being processed

Issues regarding the K-12

There is dispute with regard to the quality of education provided by the system. In the year 2014, the
National Achievement Test (NAT) and the National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) results show that
there had been a decline in the quality of Philippine education at the elementary and secondary levels. The
students' performance in both the 2014 NAT and NCAE were excessively below the target mean score.
Having said this, the poor quality of the Philippine educational system is manifested in the comparison of
completion rates between highly urbanized city of Metro Manila, which is also happens to be not only the
country's capital but the largest metropolitan area in the Philippines and other places in the country such as
Mindanao and Eastern Visayas. Although Manila is able to boast a primary school completion rate of
approximately 100 percent, other areas of the nation, such as Eastern Visayas and Mindanao, hold primary
school completion rate of only 30 percent or even less. This kind of statistic is no surprise to the education
system in the Philippine context, students who hail from Philippine urban areas have the financial capacity to
complete at the very least their primary school education.
The second issue that the Philippine educational system faces is the budget for education. Although it has
been mandated by the Philippine Constitution for the government to allocate the highest proportion of its
government to education, the Philippines remains to have one of the lowest budget allocations to education
among ASEAN countries. The third prevalent issue the Philippine educational system continuously
encounters is the affordability of education (or lack thereof). A big disparity in educational achievements is
evident across various social groups. Socioeconomically disadvantaged students otherwise known as
students who are members of high and low-income poverty-stricken families, have immensely higher drop-
out rates in the elementary level. Additionally, most freshmen students at the tertiary level come from
relatively well-off families. Lastly, there is a large proportion of mismatch, wherein there exists a massive
proportion of mismatch between training and actual jobs. This stands to be a major issue at the tertiary
level and it is furthermore the cause of the continuation of a substantial amount of educated yet
unemployed or underemployed people.