K-12 remains an unrealized ‘promise’ — Sara
Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Z. Duterte yesterday acknowledged that the lack of school facilities and a “congested curriculum” are among the factors hindering the abilities of Filipino learners.
Duterte made the admission during her presentation of the Basic Education Report 2023 at the Sofitel Hotel in Pasay City Monday.
“The lack of school infrastructure and resources to support the ideal teaching process is the most pressing issue hounding the Philippine basic education,” she said.
“The department is not blind to the reality that there is a need to build, repair and maintain school infrastructures to accommodate the growing number of learners all over the Philippines,” she added.
The ongoing review of the K to 12 curricula, she said, showed that the “curriculum content is congested, some prerequisites of identified learning competencies are missing or misplaced” and that a “significant number of learning competencies cater to high cognitive demands.”
“The K to 12 curricula promised to produce graduates that are employable. That promise remains a promise,” Duterte said.
Work immersion
The ongoing assessment of the K to 12 curricula revealed the weak teaching methods of teachers in addressing 21st-century skills, adding that studies conducted by the World Bank, UNICEF, and the Research Center for Teacher Quality showed that Filipino teachers need further support, particularly in “strategically teaching critical thinking and problem-solving skills.”
“While critical thinking was the most evident in the curriculum, it was also the least taught to students by teachers. Instead, lessons leaned toward conceptual or content-based teaching. And lessons lacked in-depth processing to cultivate critical thinking and problem solving,” Duterte said.
Duterte said they revised the K to 12 curricula to make it more responsive to the needs of students and the country and to develop learners who are imbued with 21st-century skills, discipline, and patriotism.
“We will also reduce the number of learning areas in K to 12 from 7 to 5 to focus on foundational skills in literacy and numeracy in the early grades, particularly among disadvantaged students,” she said.
She, however, said that for senior high school (Grades 11 and 12) the work immersion program has contributed to a high passing rate of 90 percent in the National Certificate of Assessment given by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
Duterte also said that industry partners have expressed concern that the allotment for work immersion is “only for work familiarization and not for actual skills acquisition.”
A study conducted by the agency’s bureau of curriculum development showed that 83 percent of the senior high school respondents pursued college education while only a little over 10 percent of the graduates were employed.
On school infrastructures, Duterte said out of the 327,851 school buildings nationwide, only 104,536 are in good condition.
She added 100,072 school buildings need minor repairs, 89,252 need major repairs, and 21,727 are already set for condemnation.
“In the Visayas alone, a total of 17, 263 classrooms damaged by super typhoon ‘Odette’ in 2021 are still subject to repair and replacement,” Duterte said, adding that she recently visited typhoon-stricken schools Clarin National High School in Bohol and the Triana Elementary School in Limasawa island in Southern Leyte.
“The destruction left by super typhoon ‘Odette’ in these schools was heartbreaking, raising the urgency of an appropriate action and collaboration between DepEd and education stakeholders from the local government units, private sector, and international partners,” she said.
Duterte said the problems brought by natural calamities are compounded by the existing armed conflict, especially in far-flung areas of the country.
She said the department needed at least P9.82 billion for the repair of schools damaged by Odette in the Visayas alone. The national government has allocated P15.6 billion for the construction of new schools this year.
More schools needed
The Vice President vowed to build more schools and classrooms that are resilient to floods and earthquakes. “For 2023, we have the budget to build around 23,000 classrooms,” she said.
Duterte also said that the problem in literacy is distressing and alarming, citing a 2018 study by the Programme for International Assessments or PISA showing that 81 percent of participating Filipino learners could not deal with basic math problems, 82 percent had trouble understanding texts of moderate length and 78 percent could not recognize correct explanations for scientific phenomena.
Duterte added that Filipino learners experience emotional abuse and exhaustion.
“Some Filipino learners suffer from psychological fatigue and being academically insecure, many of them may fail to meet the standards of a demanding and competitive world,” she said.
The department, she said, has already started implementing the National Recovery Plan that started with the return of 28.4 million learners to school after two years of blended and online learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with learning remediation and intervention programs.
Various initiatives to further capacitate teachers have also been implemented, with 15,331 teachers receiving graduate scholarships, 17,636 given early-grade language literacy and 161,700 have undergone training organized by the National Educators Academy of the Philippines.
Duterte said the department will also revitalize reading, science and technology programs, and English proficiency. She added that they will also review the curriculum of mother tongue-based education.