Project:Sandbox

CURRENT TRENDS AND ISSUES IN PHILIPPINE EDUCATION

BY: ENRICO S. SUSI

While countries are at different points in their COVID-19 infection rates worldwide, there are billions of schoolchildren affected by school closures due to the pandemic. Despite the overwhelming consequences of the pandemic, this unprecedented global crisis has also been an extraordinary time for learning. The Department of Education (DepEd) ensures the continuous delivery of its programs and services at all levels while ensuring the health, safety, and well-being of all learners, teaching and non-teaching personnel, and support the overall effort of the Philippine government to prevent the further transmission of the contagion, while ensuring the continuous delivery of quality, accessible, relevant, and liberating basic education. DepEd is also committed and passionate to provide solutions to existing challenges within its jurisdiction. Some of the challenges and issues currently dealing with by DepEd are the following:

Filipino Learners’ Reading Comprehension

In 2018, Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) a worldwide study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development that examines students’ knowledge in reading, mathematics, and science released a result wherein the Philippines ranked last in reading comprehension among 79 participating countries. PISA 2018 main subject assessed was the reading performance of 15-year-old students. The Philippines had an average reading score of 340, more than 200 points below China (555) and more than 100 points less than the OECD average (487). PISA reiterated that reading proficiency is essential for a wide variety of human activities - from following instructions in a manual; to finding out the who, what, when, where, and why of an event; to communicating with others for a specific purpose or transaction. Likewise, the Philippines also placed the second-lowest in mathematics and science. This report must be used to improve the present condition of our educational system. There is a need for critical literacy to address this problem. It must be treated seriously by our education leaders to prevent further drop in the quality of education in our country. In the context of Covid-19 pandemic, giving students a solid foundation in critical literacy is also a challenge. Teachers of reading are having difficulty to cascade the concept of critical literacy to their students. Teachers’ training should now focus towards enabling students to visualize, synthesize, and make connections to and beyond the materials that they are given rather than just plainly gathering details. Further, PISA report mentioned that expenditure per student in the country is 90 percent lower than the global average and the ability of each student to learn and comprehend the materials presented is further hampered by the absence of viable teaching materials and an environment that is not very conducive to classroom learning. Our leaders must provide proper investment to education as it will serve as the backbone of our economy in the future. Providing quality education will help our future generations to be globally competitive and productive individuals. Continuous strengthening of the literacy and comprehension programs and review of K-12 curriculum can also help to improve our current education situation.

DepEd to launch pilot face-to-face classes in selected schools

In light of the emergence of contagious variants of COVID-19, the Department of Education (DepEd) postponed the implementation of face-to-face classes in the country. More than a year since the distance learning modality was implemented, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s approved the Department’s proposal of the pilot implementation in consideration of education quality, mental health, and economic issues amidst the pandemic. The operational guidelines on the pilot implementation of face-to-face learning modality provide health and safety standards in terms of personal protective equipment, sanitation, detection and referral, ventilation, contact tracing, and quarantine, coordination, and contingency measures. From the guidelines, Secretary Briones explained that class size will be reduced to 12 learners for Kindergarten, 16 learners for Grades 1 to 3, and 20 learners for technical-vocational students, while class sessions will only run for a maximum of three hours for Kindergarten to Grade 3 and four hours for Senior High School. The implementation of Blended Distance Learning has not been reassuring as certain issues continue to be highlighted, particularly the inequities faced by marginalized and vulnerable segments of society who have fewer resources to make full use of alternative modes of learning. Unicef Philippines has also enumerated the negative effects of school closures among children, such as learning loss, high dropout rates, and mental health and socio-emotional issues. Another study of World Bank on the impact of COVID-19 on Philippine households cited by the UN body found that only 20 percent of school-aged children were engaged in learning activities while adhering to community quarantine guidelines. While the need to resume face-to-face classes is crucial to the education and well-being of children, the health and safety is as important and should also be prioritize. Education partners and stakeholders should come together once again in this endeavor and work in unity to serve the interest of our Filipino learners.

DepEd’s K to 12 Curriculum Review

The curriculum review was one of the programs initiated by the Department of Education (DepEd) to address issues on the quality of education in the country. DepEd recognizes the need to decongest the current curriculum. The review would cover the most essential learning competencies included in the curriculum this school year, which has shifted to distance learning due to the pandemic. The review is being undertaken to relieve students of overwhelming requirements in all their subjects. Citing initial results of the K to 12 review, Usec. Diosdado San Antonio, DepEd Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction, said that the curriculum review “has actually showed that our curriculum standards, performance and context standards are comparable with those standards of any other country around the world.” Usec. Diosdado San Antonio further explained that the Intended Curriculum, specifies what students are expected to learn in school in terms of knowledge, understanding, skills, values, and attitudes to be acquired and developed. It also involves how the outcomes of the teaching and learning process will be assessed that are embodied in curriculum framework. San Antonio also noted that the review of the Implemented Curriculum or the “actual teaching and learning activities taking place in schools through interaction between learners and teachers as well as among learners” is also a crucial step and is also ongoing. After the review of Intended and Implemented Curriculum, DepEd will then continue to review the Attained Curriculum, which specifies the knowledge, understanding, skills, and attitudes that learners attain as an outcome of teaching and learning, assessed through different means and/or demonstrated in practice. Various teachers’ groups in the country have also been urging DepEd to review the K to 12 program. The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition and the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines emphasized that a “comprehensive” review of the K to 12 program is “very much needed” to address challenges and problems in its implementation.

The DepEd’s prime reason for this curriculum review is to teach Filipino schoolchildren the correct knowledge, skills, and values so that they will learn and grow up as a productive citizen of our country.