Name: Alden Jerome C.

Mamaril

Essay #5

To figure what must be included in the streamlining of the K12 program, the following concerns
were identified (1) the current curricular content “is congested and some essential learning competencies
are missing or misplaced from catering to high-cognitive demands”1, (2) inclusion of values education as
was provided for by RA No. 11476, and (3) the inclusion of Mother Tongue Based Multi-Lingual Education
(MTB-MLE).

To address the abovementioned issues and streamline the program, I will discuss first that the
inclusion of values education is already provided for in all subjects, noting that all learning objectives
include the affective domain, thus, the teachers are already teaching students desirable behaviors, and
such desirable behaviors are already codified through issuances. It is the codified behaviors in those
issuances that must be revisited to determine whether or not they reflect the non-secular values of the
Filipino people. As for what should be the Filipino values, is something that can be discussed lengthily in
another paper.

As to the congestion of the curricular content, I believe that the Taba Model still best fits the
discussion. Since the K-12 program is an implemented curriculum and may not have been tested on more
samples in the Philippines, the creation of the curriculum may have not been tailor-fit to the needs of the
Filipino students. Better if we have we asked them what their goals are. Thus, we must first diagnose their
needs and see what concepts are learnable and which can be relegated to the university curriculum.
Should all these be done, we can trim down the subjects not just based on the needs of the world (i.e. the
corporate world), but also on the capabilities of the Filipino children.

I would also note that while English is still an important language to learn, it should not be the
priority. One, a student must first master his linguistic intelligence/competence through his first language,
and that’s where MTB-MLE comes in. As defined by (Malone, n.d.), MTB-MLE programs “serve learners of
non-dominant language communities who do not understand or speak the language of instruction when
they begin their formal education”. This said, it must be understood that our understanding of English is
limited when we were kids compared to language we grew up with (for some, Tagalog, for some Cebuano).
The learning in the mother-tongue must then be saved and improved to effectively bridge the language
gap between the learners and the language of instruction.

I would make the note as to our goals. While we all want our children to learn, I will ask why we
want our children to learn? Most people in power point to the readiness of our students to join the
workforce and have enough competencies to be a productive part of it, I’d ask if it is the only goal that we
have for education, because if so, we are not really producing the results that we want. The bigger part of
curriculum development is the inclusion of philosophical, sociological, and political aspects of a child’s life.
So to end, will a Filipino child grow up only to become a worker for the Philippine economy?

References
Hernando-Malipot, M. (2023, February 06). ‘Red flags’ seen in DepEd’s K to 12 curriculum revision.
Manila Bulletin.

Malone, S. B. (n.d.). Susan Malone's MTB-MLE Resources. Retrieved from SIL-LEAD: https://www.sil-
lead.org/susanmalone#:~:text=Mother%20Tongue%2DBased%20Multilingual%20Education,they
%20begin%20their%20formal%20education.

1
(Hernando-Malipot, 2023)