Quality Education
L I T E R AC Y
HAVING provided wider access to education for the youth, the Department of Education (DepEd) can now focus
“Access [to education] issue has been addressed considerably, but the quality issue is the thing that we should focus on right now.”
This was according to Department of Education (DepEd) Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan as he noted that the current DepEd management – under the watch of Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones – is focused
the absorptive capacity of the agency. “The focus of her (Briones’) administra-
management reform. It’s really a big challenge
management,” Malaluan said.
He also said there was a strong public support for the K-to-12 (Kindergarten to Grade 12) basic education reform.
“We are also seeing now—and it’s not just K-to-12, but in general—a favorable information and data with respect to participation rates, so the access to education has already improved,” Malaluan noted.
“Before it did not matter really much between a high school graduate and high school undergraduate because the idea then, it prepares you mainly for college for you to be able to get the employment,” he added.
The K-to-12 program has kindergarten as the base and added grades 11 and 12 or senior high school to the previous system of six years of elementary and four years of high school.
Malaluan stressed that accessibility of education was not mainly the major reason for dropping out among students.
“The accessibility of education as a main cause for dropping out is very low. But the department now should have interventions, and this is one of the challenges on the part of access that we should really look into deeply, promoting teacher quality and professional development. When I say quality it’s not just about being able to deliver what is program, but looking at the content really,” Malaluan said.
Malaluan also said the DepEd would review the senior high school curriculum to ensure employability and college-readiness among graduates.
“There is already an ongoing review in the curriculum, like for example, the strategic direction of tech-voc [technical vocational] education, in which we will conduct a study if we are offering the most appropriate skills or do we need to streamline this. That is one of the studies that are being undertaken by the Department,” he said.
Malaluan also said that the agency has strengthened its coordination with other government agencies, industry partners and the education sector.
“We had the recent memorandum of agreement, for example, with the Philippine Business for Education
senior high school graduates. We will further boost our coordination with industry in their role in education, which is to provide a feedback to us on the curriculum to improve matching with them, and one aspect of that is the immersion program,” he said.
“We think of the shift to K-to-12 from the old curriculum that mainly prepares our students for college, into one t hat prepares them not just for college but also for work if they choose to do so,” the
Malaluan also underscored the very low enrollment among senior high school
“The initial data that were shown to us is that there is very little interest of stu-
challenge now, part of our review of the tech-voc track, is how do we recast the ag-
greater interest and be more responsive,” Malaluan said.
“Agriculture track and skills should not focus primarily on production skills, but much heavily on the enterprise and entrepreneurial approach. I think entrepreneurship is one area from a quality standpoint. I think it will not be easy for a regular teacher to teach entrepreneurship if they don’t have any experience in entrepreneurial activity,” Malaluan added.
Apart from tech-voc, the DepEd is also reviewing its curriculum for the academic track.
“The other one that we should not lose sight of is the academic track, particularly the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), because we’re focusing on these areas for the preparation for tertiary education, and they have a very strong capacity for higher technology and innovation,” he said.
Malaluan also said that the arts and design track would be revisited as it focuses mainly on the arts.
“We can keep it that way, but I think it must be revisited also in the review of the curriculum,” he said.
include not just being an athlete actually but many other things like sports coaching and so on, to show that there are other opportunities in these tracks,” he added.
The academic track has four different strands: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS), Accountancy and Business Management (ABM), and General Academic.
The tech-voc track, on the other hand,
- ity and information and communications technology.
Figures obtained from the DepEd showed that 61 percent or 764,588 of the 1.2 million senior high school students enlisted in the academic track, 38.32 percent or 479,866 enrolled in the tech-voc track, 0.38 percent or 4,758 in arts and design, and 0.17 percent or 2,145 in sports.
For its part, the PBED said that it was very supportive of the K-to-12 curriculum.
“The government should continue implementing it,” Love Basillote, the group’s executive director, said.
Basillote also said that more employers were willing to hire fresh graduates of the K-to-12 program.
“From the point of view of employers and businesses, anecdotally we’re saying that they’re ready for the jobs, they’re
she said.
But government data also showed that 85 percent of senior high school graduates went to college, which means that only few of them wanted to work after they graduate.
(K-to-12 graduates) college-ready compared to the old educational system,” Basillote said.