DepEd to give updates on K-12 curriculum on

Jan. 30
MANILA – The Department of Education (DepEd) is expected to release updates on the
ongoing review of the Kinder to Grade 12 (K-12) curriculum by January 30.

In a press statement, the DepEd said the K-12 updates will be among the contents of its
Basic Education Report (BER) 2023.

“The BER 2023 aims to present the state of basic education in the country, and the plans
and initiatives of the Department to fulfill its mandate,” the DepEd said.

It will also launch the education agenda and the new call to action for all Filipinos.

“The Department intends to provide a broad report about the basic education sector
which will include updates on the on-going review of the K to 12 curriculum,” it added.

DepEd issued this clarification after Malacañang Press Briefer Daphne Oseña-Paez said
Vice President and Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary will be presenting a
revised K-12 curriculum before the month ends.

“...The Department of Education, the Secretary VP [Vice President] Inday Sara Duterte
presented the plans for inclusive learning, support for teachers, improving the
curriculum. The DepEd will be presenting a revised K-12 curriculum for basic ed on
January 30th,” she said.

The current K-12 program in the Philippines, which was implemented in 2012, covers
kindergarten, six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two
years of senior high school to prepare graduates for tertiary education, middle-level
skills development, employment and entrepreneurship.

Marcos earlier asked Duterte to carefully review the K-12 program, citing the need to
“develop” and “refine” the great pool of Filipino talent.

He also wanted the country's literacy rate to improve under his administration.

In his first State of the Nation Address in July last year, Marcos said the Philippines
should do better in international rankings when it comes to Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.
Also during the Cabinet meeting, Marcos asked the Department of Social Welfare and
Development to remain on heightened alert amid the inclement weather.

Likewise, Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla presented

achievements in 2022 and plans for 2023.

“He highlighted the justice department’s theme of compassionate justice in keeping

with the directive of the president who asked that he check on legal representation of
prisoners based on the President’s experience in Ilocos Norte where he remembered
that many prisoners didn’t have access to lawyers,” Oseña-Paez said.

Achievements in other agencies including the Departments of the Interior and Local
Government, Agriculture, Agrarian Reform, Energy, Labor and Employment, Health,
Migrant Workers, Environment and Natural Resources were also discussed.

Oseña-Paez said the President also reminded agencies to “know what each other is
doing” and “maximize the synergy in order to work together to achieve the 8-point
socioeconomic agenda.” (PNA)

Pass or fail? The K-12 program 11 years

after its launch

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — In 2012, the Department of

Education (DepEd) launched the K-12 Basic Education Program.

Then-President Benigno Aquino III said the curriculum, which added

two years of senior high school to the 10-year basic education system,
will equip learners with knowledge and skills they need to be
competitive worldwide.

Eleven years after its launch, did the K-12 curriculum actually achieve
this goal?

STUDIES

In 2021, the World Bank reported that around 90% of 10-year-old

Filipino learners have a problem in comprehension. This made the
Philippines as one of the countries with highest rates of learning
poverty – which means being unable to read and understand a simple
text by age 10 – in the East Asia and Pacific region.

DepEd, in response, said learning poverty has been the country’s

problem for years and it "is proactively dealing with it for the long
term." The department said it has launched programs like Bawat Bata
Bumabasa (3Bs) to increase reading proficiency among students.

Another 2021 World Bank report said 80% of Filipino children "do not
know what they should know.”

Three global assessments showed only 10% to 22% of Grades 4, 5, and

9 students scored “at or above minimum proficiency,” it said.

This had been taken down after former Education Secretary Leonor
Briones demanded an apology for the World Bank’s alleged "outdated
and insulting" report on the country's educational situation. She also
said the government was not informed about its release, which is
against protocol.

Meanwhile, a Social Weather Stations poll conducted from June 28 to

July 1, 2023 revealed that 50% of Filipino adults are dissatisfied with
the K-12 program.

It also reported that 39% said they are satisfied with the curriculum,
9% undecided, and 2% do not have enough knowledge of the program.

LESS IS BETTER?

Years after it was implemented, DepEd conducted a review of the K-12

curriculum.

So far, assessment of the K-10 program has been completed, while

evaluation for Grades 11-12 is still ongoing.

DepEd launched the revised MATATAG K-10 curriculum on Aug. 11

following a two-year review process consulting various stakeholders
like teachers, higher education institutions, private schools, and
international experts.
Under this, the program was decongested by 70% with learning
competencies being lessened to around 3,600 from over 11,000 to give
more time to "foundational skills for a better learning outcome."

Learning areas in the early levels were also reduced from seven to five
to cover Language, Reading and Literacy, Math, Makabansa, and Good
Manners and Right Conduct. Meanwhile, peace education will be also
introduced with topics like conflict resolution, human security,
community resilience, and disaster risk reduction.

MATATAG also aims to teach students about 21st-century skills like

digital literacy, critical thinking, non-verbal communication, and
informed decision-making.

DepEd wants this to undergo pilot implementation in 35 schools across

the country. Formal rollout will begin in Kinder, and Grade levels 1, 4,
and 7 by school year 2024 to 2025; Grades 2, 5, and 8 by school year
2025 to 2026; Grades 3, 6, and 9 by school year 2026 to 2027; and
Grade 10 by school year 2027 to 2028.

DELAYED OVERHAUL

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. expressed his full support for the
introduction of the MATATAG K-10 curriculum, set for pilot run on
Sept. 25, saying this is targeted to better address the learning needs
of Filipino youth.

The chief executive said this would complement the government’s

efforts to improve the Philippines’ international score, especially in
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

“Also, binibigyan natin ng pagkakataon ‘yung mga after 10th

grade na mamili kung sila ay magbo-vocational, magte-technical
training or itutuloy nila. So that's more or less the big system changes
that we're doing,” he previously said.

[Translation: We’re providing a chance for students finishing the 10th

grade to choose which vocational or technical training they would
pursue.]
For Vice President Sara Duterte, who also heads DepEd, the MATATAG
curriculum is the Marcos administration’s “legacy” in the education
sector.

Duterte assured the public that every issue raised by international and
local education experts has been settled in the new curriculum, which
includes cutting learning competencies from the whopping 11,000 to
just over 3,000.

For instance, she said that the number of subjects was slashed from
seven to five for Grades 1-3, focusing on math and reading.

While the review is already ongoing for the K-12 curriculum, ACT
Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro said aside from decongesting
the learning competencies, the government must inject more funds to
this front in order to enhance the program.

House Basic Education Committee Chair Rep. Roman Romulo,

meanwhile, lauded the current administration’s move to decongest the
curriculum. However, he raised the alarm on the supposed lack of
urgency from DepEd.

“We should be alarmed. There should be some sense of urgency, if we

can hasten the implementation and focus on reading, reading, reading
and basic mathematics. We should do that at the soonest possible
time,” he earlier said.

Senate Committee on Basic Education chairman Sherwin Gatchalian,

on the other hand, blamed the overcrowded lessons for the 30% to 40%
dropout rate among Grades 1-3 students.

“Because our curriculum is so congested, a lot of our children get

frustrated and they don’t enter school anymore,” he said in September.

One possibility is for the child to only resume schooling by the age of
12-14 through the Alternative Learning System (ALS), which
Gatchalian said was “not the complete approach.”

"I do agree with Congressman Roman (Romulo) na sana ginawa na

kaagad [that this should have been implemented immediately]
because of that [congestion], we are seeing dropouts," he said,
referring to the new curriculum. “We can only arrest that dropouts if
we decongest and launch the new curriculum,” he said.

TEACHERS

Just like other lawmakers' observation, Lorna D. Lacsina, an

elementary teacher from Angeles City, Pampanga, also believes the K-
12 curriculum is “congested” and presents “many weaknesses” in
hitting learning targets.

“So many subjects to be taken and so many competencies to be

mastered. Which leads to over information that learners could not all
take in,” she said.

Given this, achieving or making targets has become “so vague.”

“As a teacher who is in the service for almost three decades, I have
been exposed to different curriculum. I can say that out of all the
curriculums that DepEd has carried out, the present K-12 Curriculum
has so many weaknesses and it has to be reviewed,” she added.

The pandemic made the situation even worse, the teacher said,
stressing that “Filipino learners are having problems in reading,
literacy, and numeracy” even before the coronavirus reached the
Philippines in March 2020.

As officials moved to roll out a new curriculum, Lacsina said since the
MATATAG Curriculum targets to only focus on five main subjects, this
could help students “in mastery of competencies among the subjects
zeroing in with foundational skills in language, reading and literacy,
mathematics and good manners and right conduct.”

However, Lacsina said a proper implementation of the new curriculum

must be ensured, particularly in the grassroot level.

“Otherwise it will not make any difference,” she said.

SWS: Half of Filipinos dissatisfied with K-12
curriculum
MANILA — About half of Filipinos are dissatisfied with the K to 12 basic education program,
while 9 in 10 prefer the previous June to March academic calendar, the Social Weather Stations
(SWS) found in a survey released on Thursday.

Fifty percent of 1,500 respondents said they were dissatisfied with the K-12 curriculum, while 30
percent said they were satisfied and 9 percent were undecided, the SWS said.

The same poll found that 89 percent of Filipino adults preferred the June to March academic
calendar, while 10 percent were in favor of the September to June calendar and 1 percent had no
preference.

The school year opened last Aug. 29 for public schools. The academic calendar began a few
weeks earlier for some private schools.

The Department of Education earlier said it was studying calls to bring back the June to March
academic calendar, which several groups sought due to harsh heat in classrooms during the dry
season.

The agency is also testing a revised K to 10 program, which reduces learning areas and focuses
on foundational skills.

The review for the Grade 11 to 12 curriculum is still pending.

Cayetano to DepEd: If we continue with K-

12, let’s pour resources into it
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano on Friday said if the Department of
Education (DepEd) is really determined to continue the K-12
curriculum, then the government must put the necessary resources
into its proper implementation.

“Ako mas gusto ko nang ituloy ang K-12 pero itodo [ang resources],”
Cayetano said in an interview with reporters on November 10, 2023.

The senator stressed that Philippine education is in crisis and the

government has to “fix it now,” otherwise “we’re in trouble in the next
15 years.”
“Ang punto ko, mag-decide tayo. Kung tayo ay committed sa K-12,
y’ung P400 billion para sa classrooms ilagay natin. Y’ung mga
kailangan na gamit – kitchen, sewing machines, sports facilities,
makina – ilagay natin sa loob ng mga school,” he said.

Cayetano said the government has the money to accomplish those

within four years.
“Hindi mahirap ang Pilipinas. Hirap lang ang Pilipinas, pero may pera
tayo,” he said.
He also said the timeline does not necessarily have to be immediate.
“Hindi kaya ng isang taon, pero kaya ng apat na taon,” he said.

The Senate Committee-approved version of the proposed DepEd

budget for 2024 is P718 billion. If another P400 billion gets added for
the proper implementation of K-12, the Department’s budget would
then total P1 trillion.

Reiterating his stand that one of the reasons for the learning poverty in
the country is the fewer number of hours students spend in school,
Cayetano said DepEd should come up with another curriculum to
restore the length of school hours to eight hours.

“[Sa K-12], hindi ka sure kung four hours or three hours lang [ang bata] sa
loob ng paaralan,” he said, pointing to the problem of public schools having
to hold classes in shifts to accommodate the number of students in limited
classrooms.

Cayetano urged the people to “rally behind” the Education Department

by sounding the alarm on the issue.

“Kung hindi tayo magbabago, instead of better jobs for our OFWs at
mas kaunti ang mag-a-abroad, baligtad ang mangyayari: mas maraming
mag-a-abroad at ang makukuhang klase ng trabaho ay mas maliliit ang
sweldo at mas delikado,” he said.

K-12 is a failure, time to junk it

When classes were first suspended because of the threat of COVID-19,
many did not think that it was the start of the longest pandemic-
induced lockdown in the world. In the University of the Philippines,
many students were yet to take their midterm exams before being
forced to leave the campus.

More than a year later, they are still yearning to go back.

The pandemic worsened existing problems plaguing the Philippine

education system and brought about even more headaches. Even
before the “new normal,” the country’s public schools were already
struggling with inadequate funding, facilities, textbooks, and
manpower, among other deficiencies. To hear stories of students and
teachers having to traverse difficult terrain to study and teach were
also not unusual.

As a result, the quality of education given to Filipino students has

negatively affected their learning and acquisition of necessary
competencies. The Philippines is notorious for faring poorly on
national and international student assessments that measure
performance in select subject areas.

In response, the K-12 program promised more employment

opportunities for students. The idea was that they would already be
competitive and “job-ready” upon graduation from Senior High School.
However, many employers were not inclined to hire applicants without
a college diploma, especially those K-12 graduates whom they
perceive as hilaw pa.

What K-12 did do is provide additional burden to the finances of

Filipino families and additional obstacles to student-breadwinners who
are itching to graduate to help their loved ones. The program widened
the gap between the haves and have-nots. Those at the top leadership
see not its setbacks but the need to comply to Western market-based
international standards of education.

It is an indisputable fact that the K-12 program is a neoliberal state

policy aimed at increasing the rate of labor-export of skilled, cheap,
and docile workers. Education has always been tied to the economic
interest; lest we forget that it must be redefined to cater the needs of
the people—the nation we are building.

Earning a college diploma was already a treacherous climb; K-12 made

the mountain even steeper while transforming schools and universities
into ‘diploma mills’ and subjecting them to the invisible hand of the
free market, rather than intellect.

Come pandemic, we still had a failing education system which had to

contend with novel and difficult challenges. The abrupt shift to a
remote learning setup had students, teachers, and parents scrambling
to make the necessary adjustments. However, the crippling economic
recession that ensued, a bungled pandemic response, and a
government that just won’t quit persecuting its people hampered their
best efforts.

Because of the lack of resources, enrolment and retention rates were

down across the board. Complaints of exhaustion from remote learning
have dominated social media as the mental and physical health of
many students and teachers further deteriorated.

Clearly, we should never expect much from an education system that

fundamentally views students as products for export. Placing high on
world rankings does not really mean much if the concerns of students,
teachers, and staff – who form the backbone of the education system –
are belittled, ignored, or worse, suffering.

We understand that addressing the education system’s woes will not

be accomplished in a day. We can always start small. For instance,
CHED Chairperson Prospero de Vera should stop forwarding the
narrative that there is “no going back” from the “new normal.”

Maybe the Duterte administration can stop funding harmful and

wasteful initiatives such as the NTF-ELCAC and the quickly-
disappearing dolomite beach in Manila Bay. Congress could have
funded the much-needed cash aid and helped students and teachers
with the remote learning setup in the short run, and ensured a safe
return to schools in the long run.

In a time wherein government officials are so eager to ask “Anong

ambag mo?”, we think it best to issue this reminder: You are the ones
in power. Stop passing the burden of policy-making to the students,
teachers, and people you serve.

Meanwhile, at the university level, it is imperative to choose student-

leaders who are uncompromising in the campaigns of the student and
mass movements. Political parties who continue to support K-12, on
the basis of reforming it, should be subject to the scrutiny of the
student body they seek to lead: especially now that three batches of
K-12 graduates are now enrolled in UP. The stand on the K-12 is a
litmus test to their militancy and practice.

With a criminally negligent and incompetent regime, we are not asking

for a golden goose; what we want are sensible and pro-people policies.
Our demand is simple: Do your jobs, and do it well. If you can’t and you
won’t, then step down or the people will oust you.

Our student-leaders who will be elected in this student council

election cycle should be the ones to lead us in our campaigns for an
education that caters to our national needs and rejects its colonial
character, democratizes access to it by making it a right, and
advocates for a scientific space rather than an anti-democratic prison.

The K-12 program of education is failing and, in many ways, the

Philippine education system has become a mere factory that
dehumanizes the learning process. And now we must amplify our calls
to junk the bogus K-12 system because all justifications conclude that
it has done nothing but to prolong our suffering and bondage to labor
exploitation.